Cones To Balls

Well. That was illuminating.

2010-10-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

It's remarkable, really, how little I've thrown over the past year.

But much like the point of this little endeavor, the idea of making every string count...I've made every throw count. I think I used a total of 7 strings during Worlds. Seven. In years past, that wouldn't have gotten me from check-in to my room. I used to be obsessive about changing strings the moment they lost their bounce. I was the guy who could burn a hundred strings a day and think nothing of it.

Now? Now I'll switch yo-yos rather than change strings, in the hopes that the next time I pick that one up the string doesn't seem "so bad" to me.

I don't know how many strings I've used off this cone, but I do know that the idea of going back to pre-tied string seems kinda weird to me. The cone just feels more natural to me now. Although I really do need a cone of Type 8 cotton so that I can use my Loop 900s. The Type 10 works fine on Loop 720s but my newly beloved 900s got the shortest honeymoon ever when I realized that string off this cone doesn't work at all.

It's been an interesting year. A busy year, for sure. A difficult year? Oh, you have no idea. But it's always been interesting.

I originally had some kind of romantic notion that I was going to post weekly updates and videos and blah blah but such things fall by the wayside quickly when life gets hectic. It's weird though...at some point I get really in to reading Ed and Jacob's progress and began viewing the project as a spectator. My own daily life had so little yo-yo content that I barely considered myself a participant in Cones To Balls. I was the guy who had the cones...that seemed to be the only role I was able to fulfill with any regularity.

I'm sticking with my cone, though. Feels right. Feels natural.

Feels good.

One Day

2010-10-26T19:06:00.000-07:00

It has been unusually hard to keep this blog up-to-date.

I refuse to believe it's because I'm too busy. "If you want something done, give it to a busy person." -BM I will concede that I have been less than

enthusiastic about putting something new on the blog.

I suppose part of the reason is that I cannot play yo-yo and play computer at the same time.

Another factor is that "making every throw count" can't happen if I'm trying to translate the transcending feeling into words on the Internet. Siddhartha's conversation with Buddha (Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse) was really vague, but it revolved around ones "divine revelation" is never the same as the experience of another, and the method of arrival to said experience is even more varied than the experience itself.

Sometimes I'm just playing yo-yo, totally zoned out, and completely happy. Others, I'm consumed by new elements or composition or compilations. Others, I'm frustrated.

But I have changed a bad habit: I only throw a yo-yo when I have an idea of what I want to do. I don't throw blindly and make it up. I see a mental image of the trick or just call out a trick name (ala Street Fighter), and do it the best I can, with any extra criteria or stipulations I set forth.

It's hard. Sometimes I have to put the yo-yo down until I know what I want to do. But I just want to play with toys! (2A is as close to "mindless" as I get. If you read back, 2A is far from mindless with this thick string)

The yo-yo I have been playing most recently is my white Velocity without shuttles. It just has really deeply-recessed pads. I think it's about 45 grams, but it's most all rim-weight. It plays as well as some of my metal yo-yos. I even like the color ;)

But my year will up in a few days, just like Ed's. I'm not going to stop playing this string: I have gotten too used to it. That and I'm out of other string because I gave most of it away. I still have half of a cone, and that gives me about another year to find a good enough replacement. The toilet paper roll effect will kick in, and I will conserve my string more as it makes its way to the ball.

But I'm very happy with what this project has done for me. I wish I could reciprocate a fraction of it, but I don't know the right words or ways to bring up the feelings.

This isn't goodbye: I will make more posts when I think of something both tangible and meaningful. Talk soon

One Year

2010-09-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

thursday will be one year. in 3 days will have fulfilled my 'obligation', both to the cone and to the project. that said, it feels decidedly unlike an 'arrival' (maybe that would be different had i actually updated this blog with any substantial consistency). i'm just on the path, and i'm gonna do my best to stay in the middle of it.

i love playing yo-yo. i love it even more with this string. when i started this journey a year ago, i thought that it would be a challenge, and in some respects it has been... but not in the way that i assumed. i thought i would grow to detest the ritual of winding and cutting and twisting, and that i would get sick of the thick, unwieldy material (and no lie, it can feel like razor-wire on humid summer days). but no... by and large, this project has been a dream, and without a doubt, i will be continuing to use the cone (AND the 'backup' i have for whenever this one has finally tapped out) until i'm positively empty... at which point i'll probably seek for another source.

there is nothing like being in touch with what you're doing. as i've said several times, it's SO easy to yank a string off a skein and go that the process contributes nothing to your yo-yoing. i'm sure some would argue that putting a string on the yo-yo 'need not' contribute to one's play, but it does for me. the 'real' trick begins before the throw down and continues after the yo-yo whacks the flesh of your palm. much like a pianist might say that the meaning is found in the rests and not the notes, there is much more to yo-yoing than the sum of the individual maneuvers that you perform. this process has demanded that i take a minute before i throw. sometimes i have to twist a new string, but more often as i'm creating the slipknot and feel the thick texture of the cotton or the quality of the square-knot i've tied, i just take a moment to silently recognize what i'm about to do. 'cones to balls' has brought a reflective consistency upon which i've begun to rely, and i cannot imagine how incomplete my play would feel devoid of this momentary appreciation for the apparently trivial process of string-twisting.

i've heard a hundred times over that polyester string is superior. a visit to yoyoexpert.com yields this gem, which i think accurately reflects the community's mindset: "Good Yo-Yo string is essential if you want to get the most out of your yo-yo. Luckily we have come a far way from the basic cotton strings your grandfathers had."

i respectfully object to this sentiment on a number of levels. for one, i don't believe that the 'quality' of our grandfathers' play was implicitly inferior to ours. obviously, any number of today's tricks would be virtually impossible, given their materials (or actually impossible - believe me, i've tried rancid milk on wood axle A LOT) . however, with alarming casualty, yo-yoers throw out the suggestion that our play is somehow 'worth more' than that of our predecessors. i think that's a load of crap, and don't believe for a second that the quality of our play is dictated by our materials. as always, it's a product one's of diligence, joy, and commitment to the craft. there's no common denominator to compare, but are we really to believe that the complexity which we've created is more fulfilling and powerful than what barney akers did with his modest tools? in another 40 years, yoyofactory's 'motorized' yo-yo prototype may have completely rewritten the scope of 'what's possible'. but to assume that this development would somehow devalue our efforts in the present would be as depressing as it would be fallacious. good yo-yoing is yo-yoing that complements its moment; that makes it a little brighter, a little more interesting or carefree.

a good yo-yo is a yo-yo that you're inspired to pick up and play, no matter what it's made of or what's inside it. ditto with string. i'm not an eco-obsessed, organic-produce-buying nutri-dad... but i like the idea that the soft, fibrous material along which my fingers slide was once alive - was once effectively a flower. yo-yoing is the practice of creation; of living, growing, evolving. the resonance of a wooden yo-yo humming against a cotton string fills me with an explosive appreciation for that fact. polyester is just dead to me... so to speak.

i don't mean to be preachy, and i don't care what you play. i like to really think about my yo-yoing; to evaluate not only my tricks and technique but my approach and mindset as well. this project has given me an impetus for questioning and for deconstructing myself, and that, to me, is the real 'marrow' of yo-yoing, and growing more attuned to it has been more valuable than any breakout or tutorial could be.

as far as regrets, it's easy to say that i should have spent more time updating this blog. it was a commitment, one in which (in some respects) i've failed... but the real commitment has been in the practice of twisting string; in seeing the 'life' of a string from its source as cotton thread, through its days spent in [mainly] joyful play, and finally its demise, laid to rest among its peers within the ball.

to heft the ball now feels surreal. the once-white threads now clasp the beautiful filth of a year (or 362 days anyway), one like all years, full of laughter and pain. while throwing one of these strings i was agonizing over the details of my return to teaching (which is going splendidly thanks). while solving the chinese calculus that setting this stuff up for loopers has been, i've concurrently watched my son learn to talk, climb, and pee in the potty and listened as my daughter has transitioned from barely coherent knock-knocks to hilarious, biting sarcasm. secured within the ball are strings i've thrown during 3 trips to disney world (we like disney world)... strings thrown by world and national champions and at the home of john higby... strings i've used to entertain 5-year-olds who could not possibly care what distinguishes rancid milk from pure 143... strings i've thrown in one-stoplight appalachian mountain towns and knee-deep in the atlantic ocean... strings i've thrown in anger and impatience and strings i've thrown with momentary grace and serenity to which i have little right.

though i cannot fully explain why, i know that i'm a better yo-yoer and a better person for having participated in this, and it feels good to have seen it through (even if i do like the string enough to keep with it). my thanks to my conical brothers, steve and j-def, and to anyone who ever read any of this stuff and thought for a second about their own yo-yoing and all that it means.

it means a great deal.

"Happy Birthday G5"

2010-09-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

This is the first real yo-yo trick video that I have done with only 5A. This is also one of the only ones I did not add music to. That decision was due to indecision, and the fact that I don't know how to go about getting music rights.

I feel like I am playing with my yo-yo, like along side it, how you would play with a friend. Not just using a certain toy to play in general.

Spin energy transfer was brought to you by Cones to Balls string :)

White Yo-yos

2010-08-11T14:42:00.001-07:00

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.

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.

Wait a bit...

2010-08-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-08-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

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!

New Break

2010-07-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

So I got some new yo-yos (thanks ed).

This pair of wood-colored Hummingbirds are just up my alley. The gap is wide enough to allow looping with this old-school string (while double-looped), and just challenging enough to play single-looped.

But I broke a pair of strings on them within an hour.

These strings didn't break at the finger-loop, nor at the axle where the friction is usually the greatest. Instead, the strings broke at the outer diameter where the gap starts. The same place that would touch the ground during walk-the-dog. This is a place that I have never broken one of these strings at.

"Stop this Train" was playing in the background. I want strings to last longer with these new yo-yos. The song is reminding me that I don't need them to. It's just fine, and it's worth it.

I suppose the subtle hum from sending a loop out has a price.

But it's still so bittersweet.

where ah'm at.

2010-06-16T11:05:00.001-07:00

the project continues. naught to report but continued glee. month by month, i continue to get my no jives more and more dialed to this stuff... when it finally runs out i'll be at a loss for what to do.

oh, and on that note...

yeah... kinda gonna be awhile before i'm 'out'. yup... new cone on deck... don't ask - not telling! ;)
cones-to-balls [literally] forever!

I lied

2010-06-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

My freestyle from BAC was getting put online as I posted about not finding it. pffffffft

And this string works wonderfully for 2a. Just got a pair of LOOP720's. Best fun ever.

Putting Strings Away

2010-06-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

I have this bad habit of letting dead strings accumulate before I put in the time to wind them into the ball. This is almost the opposite mindset this project was created for. Here I am pictured putting what must be eight or ten strings after saving them until I found the motivation to wind them up.

I don't get the immediate feedback of the work each string actually is, which makes them energetically "cheaper". Want another string? OK, done. It's wrong, and I want to stop.

I also gave away a string yesterday. I let little kids (5 and 7 years old) play with my yo-yo, and little kids have unbearably grubby hands, and utterly destroyed the string with gunk within a few minutes. They didn't notice how bad the string felt, as they were having fun learning a sleeper. But I would not even want to hang on to the disgusting string long enough to put it in the ball. So I made a gift out of the mucky, stiff, gooey, and positively revolting string. I would have paid the kids to take it, but they even said "thanks".

I got to go to California this past weekend, and didn't bring my ball of strings (I was packing light). The ones I am winding are ones used on the trip. There was some contest (BAC) that weekend super-close to where my family was, and I gave the 5A freestyle of my life.

Unfortunately, I don't think it was filmed, or it's nowhere to be found online. I even got filmed by Gabe, which was a secret life dream, got complimented by lots on non-yo-yoers, drew crowds with silly tricks, realized Augie Fash is really a superstar, and even gave contact info out to somebody that works at a museum that liked my freestyle. The last guy needed permission to use the footage they got from the freestyle in a documentary that will try to make yo-yoing more athletic, and get it into the Olympic sports. And had some GREAT apple curry.

It's not a cliche when it happens to you...

2010-05-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

For those of us that play yo-yo, a common comment from non-yo-yoers is something to the effect of the string breaking and hitting them in the face, permanently ruining their looks and life.

Some people are straight up, stereotypical drama queens.

But some people are right.

This is one of the managers at my store, Ms. Ohara. She was about to walk out of the door and do some work, whilst I played yo-yo in the same hallway we are depicted in. The string on my Pulse was old, and 2A stresses the strings most out of any play style.

In the middle of a hop, the string DID break at the slipknot, and the yo-yo flew in slow motion towards the exiting Ms. Ohara. Just as she turns to reach for the doorknob, the yo-yo makes it's impact with an assertive "slap".

She turns to me, my cringed face already twisted in guilt, because not an hour before this event, I told her not to worry about the yo-yo hitting anybody.

But then we both start laughing, because it couldn't have hurt that much, and I couldn't have been more wrong about assuring her it's safe to be around yo-yos.

I can post more now, because I'm not in school right now (can't you tell?). The other gentlemen do not have the option to get out of Dad-manship, so we will see how much we see of them.

weird skillz

2010-05-17T05:09:00.001-07:00

@J-Def, i do the EXACT same thing lately. at first i was hyper-religious about getting the strings onto the ball sans delay, but now i'll walk around my yo-yo room (i have one) and step over like 8 discarded strings before i get to the cone. and then when it gets to be too unbearable (read: when my wife tells me to clean up), i have a little 15 minute ball party. i need to get better about that for sure. it feels more meaningful to me when done right away; like the difference between a proper funeral and a mass grave.

anyway... when i started this project with steve, i remember him saying excitedly 'and just think... in a year, we'll be like the only guys under 60 who can twist our own string in just a few seconds!' it's funny... you do get good at it. the first few times, it probably took me 5 minutes to make sure everything was in order and nothing was kinked or crazy. now, it takes me about 45 seconds.

it got me thinking about other obscure skills i've accumulated. i'm 33 years old, and i can...

• fold a japanese hakama with traditional knot
• snap-start into sidewinder (hi, steve).
• set up an upright bass.
• build and light a PERFECT charcoal pyramid
• boneless over a small child standing (or a fat child lying down).
• orient myself via the constellations.
• diagram the hell out of essentially any sentence.
• field-strip, clean, and polish a katana
• beat you in a triceratops drawing contest (but not in any other sort of drawing contest)
• peel an orange in one strip.
• hit BLAHBLAH on a no jive.
• change a nasty poopy diaper with 3 baby wipes or less.
• dislocate/relocate my left shoulder.
• properly apply/remove wax to/from a surfboard.
• reliably impale a pizza box with a knife from 10m.
• take ridiculously good care of hydrangeas.

and yet i canNOT:
• change my own oil or replace my brakes (tires, yes).
• beat super mario bros, sonic the hedgehog, or altered beast.
• clean/gut a fish.
• score under 100 in 18 holes of golf (actually... probably even in 9).
• run anywhere of my own volition without being actively pursued.
• land a frontside 180 kickflip (if it ends in flip i probably can't land it).
• tie a bow-tie.
• get my back lawn in order.
• correctly spell 'necessary' or 'commitment' without looking them up.
• do 2-handed punching bag (or honestly, even passable 1-handed).
• drive stick.
• seem to take a flattering photograph.

funny how the world carves you into an image you never expected or intended. somehow the latter list seems infinitely more useful.

BTW: these strings... do NOT do well in humidity.

BTW BTW: i'm going back to disney in like 3 weeks. YYYYYYEEEEEEAH.

The Eclipse

2010-05-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

Like ed said in the previous post, I have added enough strings to my ball to make it about the same diameter as the cone.

This image is taken with a vantage point above the cone, so the ball looks even bigger than it is. But I have compared the different dimensions of the ball (it's not quite round) to the cone diameter, and they average out to be almost exactly the same. The ball is finally eclipsing the cone.

The funny thing is this has been the truth for about twenty strings. The diameter of the ball isn't getting appreciably bigger with each string, like at the beginning. The cone is certainly starting to get smaller in diameter, though.

I know this because I measure my strings by how many winds I take off. I don't have a physical distance to measure it by (my wingspan is too short to make a long enough string). It's ten winds for a 1A string, 9 for a 5A string, and 18 or so for a pair of 2A strings. All of these have a little bit of leftover string that I usually clip off after the string is made.

The tag end of the string that I clip is all but gone in the 1A string, though. I counted how many winds the string goes around the axle on the yo-yo: it is between 20 and 16 for 1A (always depending on the gap and bearing sizes). The string is the same length that I used to make it, but less tag end is available to clip.

Once I realized this pattern, I got a little blue. I bet I still have nearly 200 strings left on the cone, but every one I twist brings me inevitably closer to having to buy some other string. I don't want to not use this string for 1A or 5A. This string can -expletive- a -removed- for 2A, it's soooooo much easier to use thinner, softer, tighter cotton-8 for looping. But I don't want to have to get used to a thinner, slower, or softer string for playing every day with.

As far as recent events, I performed at MOYO a few weeks ago. My ego was bigger than my performance, and I choked in both freestyles (shown below). I do have some stories, though.

-I usually always bring tea to contests, and toted along my water boiler, cups, and pot for everyone to enjoy. But I totally forgot the tea leaves at home. Thankfully, there was a Teavana in the nearby mall, and I got to get tea for everyone (and re-up on oolong tea, because I was running low anyway). Corporation, you saved my day.

-There was a particular contest-goer that I met (and promptly forgot his name) that was getting nervous about his turn coming up to perform. I invited him over for a little cup of tea, and told him to calm down, not think about words, and stop processing all information. Just sit, enjoy, and be happy. This evidently helped, because he gave a great freestyle, felt great afterward, and thanked me for the "magical tea". I just let him do what he was already able to.

-My name was not called in the list of 1A competitors. I had my music uploaded, and everything was in order to let me freestyle. So I got put first in the list, and gave a decent 1A performance.

(thanks, metalyoyoer)

-Someone dared me to do an aerial and a jump-spin kick, so I did. Lots of people stared, and applause was given.

-I got on stage to do my 5A routine, and Amy (from the II table) made an announcement. Evidently, there were tornadoes around, and we had to get downstairs in the caves of the City Museum. I was blamed for causing the tornadoes with the jump-spin kick. After the warnings were expired, the contest resumed, and I got to be the first freestyle for the second half of the open division. Mine is the first one in the series. Ironically enough, the music was "Riders on the Storm" by The Doors.

(thanks, stringsbytoby)

-And everyone had a great, wonderful, happy time. Most of my strings got almost unusable because of the humidity, but most everyone's string did.

Will update more later.

Order Becomes Disorder

2010-04-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

i talked to j-def last week.
he was saying his ball is about the width of his cone.

... i got ball envy.

i guess i'm almost there, and it must just mean i go through string a little slower. i have zero idea how many i've used. maybe 120? more than ever before in my 'yo-yo life', i take my sweet time with string, but not because the twisting is inconvenient.

it occurred to me as i was twisting a string yesterday that at this point (6 months in), it doesn't feel weird or inconvenient at all. i can pull a string from the cone and have it twisted and playing great in about 30 seconds. my hands naturally lift the spool, i step on an inch of untwisted string with my big toe, placing the yo-yo another inch or so in front. to measure, i lift the spool as high as i can with both hands, then reach to my back-right pocket for my balisong and cut (quick and clean to keep the ends from fraying).

the whole process has become less 'exotic' and more of a simple concentration on daily routine. it's like a tiny prayer. it matters. being involved in the birth of each string straight through to its demise, when i bury it in the ball with its peers, reveals an interesting metaphor. inanimate though the string may be, the simple state of being cognisant of it throughout its 'life-cycle' has added a dimension to the way i interpret playing yo-yo. more and more, i recognize that when i'm out (as i will inevitably be)... i'm going to miss this process.

when i flick the yo-yo clockwise and twist the string, i work my way down every inch of the string. every twist is impregnated with my sweat and oil before i even throw. and since i'm invested in the method, every string is absolutely perfect (7 twists per inch, always). i can't imagine casually pulling a string out of a skein, ignoring its specific characteristics before playing it. admittedly, that has its own ritual, but it's one that is easily ignored, which probably accounts for peoples' tendency to throw string away if they get a kink or knot. there are no knots in this ball. i get plenty of them, but i work em all out. the strings in the ball have all met 'natural' deaths.

i find it amusing to regard the cone and ball beside each other. before it's put into play, the string is so beautiful. the ordered, overlapping triangles on the spool make for a mesmerizing little tapestry in themselves. then, after they're life is spent and they're tied back onto the ball, the strings appear thoroughly disheveled, with long expanses discolored by grease, dirt, and use; a gordian tangle, devoid of any discernible order.

it's not unlike our own lives. as we start out, the world feels clear and calm. we assume that all of our schemes and dreams will manifest themselves as planned, and that our path through life will be 'straight' or 'make sense'. as we grow, however, we begin to realize that the path has the unmistakable taste of chaos. it changes us; becomes a part of us. for a time, this truth might be upsetting as it erodes the mechanics of our precious assumptions; the sense of order upon which we've relied. however, a mature person will look at their path through life and recognize that order and disorder are just mutually relative illusions. we don't do all that we planned to do, and we do much that we would never have planned or wished, but those truths are far from unfortunate. the tone of our lives often feels less like a victorian garden and more like the amazon, but the disorder is ok - because it's home.

similarly, though the sum of the strings' experiences thoroughly destroys the appearance of order, it is no less beautiful in the end.

Doing an ed

2010-04-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

I have found a couple of old yo-yos that, although they do not have desirable traits for high performance (like bad wiggle, the tendency to fall apart, really soft plastic, etc...), they still are mounds of fun to play with. Kinda like ed's No-Jives.

These are the yo-yos I have been carrying lately.

The 80's Butterfly has a Team Losi bearing. Same size as the Yomega bearing that is not used in any modern yo-yos (to my knowledge). OK, it's about the same size as the Peterfish ones available at work (Walgreens)... The spacers DO in fact stick out further than the plastic. This causes a string-centering effect, and does away with the string slipping into the side of the yo-yo with the 5x10x4 bearing it was modded to take. This yo-yo fell apart while doing a 3D Eli Hop, because it does not twist together very tightly. I lost one of the spacers, but thankfully I (by way of sacrificing dozens of yo-yos I don't even remember having) had a spare.

The Team Losi 'da Bombs are what I have been using to loop. Finding a pair of loopers and keeping them tuned properly is by far the most difficult part of this entire project. I found (in the same vial of yo-yo guts as the replacement spacer) wider wood axles to go in them, which is evidently exactly what I needed. They work wonderfully, even with the huge gap that is needed for the thicker strings. I can almost do Tangler with them.

Speaking of, I also broke a string at the axle-side (like ed did) trying to do Tangler. I have broken dozens of strings at the finger-loop, but this is the first one that went KABLOOEY like ed's [soul] around the axle. You can see the charred end of the string against my forearm, and I will tell you it still smells good.

Just like the strings, the yo-yos will wear out and become un-useable soon. Team Losi's are know to have the starbursts wear out after just moderate use. They also have some cracking happening around the hex nut and bot that keeps them together, another strike against them. The 80's butterfly is modded to have a silicone groove on the side that has the logo, so it is more protected from wear. I have to thoroughly enjoy these yo-yos while I can, because I will only have memories of them soon enough.

I did a trick that Justin Weber would do with the Butterfly. I don't have a name for it. But the sound effect that goes along with this (all of Justin's tricks have a sound effect) is:

whip bom babom, shoo

Justin Weber's trick, Jacob Deffenbaugh performing from Jacob Deffenbaugh on Vimeo.

We have not forgotten about this blog, nor the string, nor you. Thanks for keeping up with us. More content is coming along with the "yo-yo" season, where kids are out of school. I know for certain that I will have my freestyle I have been practicing for MOYO coming after the weekend of the 24th.

'till later.

State of the Yo-yo Address

2010-03-13T00:06:00.001-08:00

Whether Steve wants to share this or not, I think this is very important.

The State of the Yo-yo Address

Sorry to steal your thunder, Steve. But the lightning was too strong to let it to dissipate over time.

Steve, as an aside, how many of those thousand strings were Cones To Balls™ strings?

i totally lost count.

2010-02-28T09:47:00.000-08:00

i have no idea how many strings i've twisted. maybe like... 60? 70?

all's i know is that the ball no longer fits well in the rancor's hand... and it makes him feel inadequate. it's kind of weak, since i was making tally marks. how hard is it to make a tally mark? i don't even remember neglecting to do so. was there a string i twisted and i was going to make the mark in the book, but i was like 'ah, screw it!'?

i also know that whenever i stop twisting from the cone of doom, i'm really going to miss the way the strands look after you tie the loop. it reminds me of a buddhist mala (though i'll grant you, a lot of things do... because i'm pretty flaky).

also noteworthy is the fact that i 'compared cones' (god that sounds dirty) with john higby last week, who has one of the old tom kuhn spools (both the smaller one and one of the enormous ones), and although the tk stuff is type 8, it feels exactly like this stuff in terms of its rigidity and spring-factor.

i'm a little concerned because i can't really make out any discernible change in the overall size of the cone. i mean, i don't twist a ton of strings (i timed one last week and it lasted for at least 6 hours of play)... but it looks pretty much just as massive and daunting as when i first received it. i guess since it's cylindrical, as it unwinds, the width will start to diminish more rapidly over time. is that right? i'm not like a math teacher or anything.

... oops.

A Full One Hundred Throws and Catches

2010-02-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

A Full One Hundred Throws and Catches (and others) from Jacob Deffenbaugh on Vimeo.

This almost seems counter-intuitive for this project. But the roots lie in enjoying every throw.

Instead of throwing the yo-yo like you always do, then dealing with the sometimes sub-par performance, why not make the actual throw more fun?

I don't have a lesson here, and I'm not really expecting this to change the world. I just want to do simple, cool yo-yo tricks.

DISNEY!!!

2010-01-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

leaving for walt disney world in a few hours. our travel will be complicated somewhat by the swirling vortex of winter weather that will (apparently) descend upon north carolina late tonight. my daughter and i actually have tickets to the ringling bros. (and barnum and bailey) circus tonight. plan was to leave tomorrow after her ballet class, but as that's sure to be canceled i think we'll amscray in the night and hope to miss the worst of the precipitation.

folk from the north always laugh at the mid-atlantic states as they fumble around during the winter, but while they get 3 feet of [clearly impassable] snow, we tend to get freezing rain, and a half-inch of ice, which may look like nothing, but will misdirect even the hardiest snow-tires into a ditch.

i'm psyched for the trip, but this is really the first time i've had to twist some string in advance. i'll be gone a week, so i twisted 8 strings. this seems more than i could possibly use (probably more like 3 or 4), but i wanted to be safe. i'm not bringing the cone or the ball, so i'll have to carefully save what i use. leave no trace.

someone on 'extremespin' (which still exists, funnily enough) asked how the project is going, which to me indicates that i don't post enough. i'll end this entry with what i told him, since i can't think of a more interesting way to paraphrase it:

"it's awesome string. i play narrow gaps, and i'm not gonna lie... it's hard. it takes a really concentrated effort to do the stuff that i've had dialed on thinner string. but that's also why i like it. i've only snapped one, it lasts a LONG time, and the texture is divine.

and much like the original 'idea', i really THINK before i twist a new one. they aren't 'disposable' in the same way that other string has been for me. i commit to twisting it well, commit to playing it well (or as well as i can manage), and when it joins the ever-expanding ball, winding it is almost a kind of meditation. like a tiny funeral. and like any funeral for one who has lived well, there's more joy than grief involved."

An old, familiar feeling.

2010-01-22T12:48:00.000-08:00

I recently acquired a yo-yo that is a few years old. Don't tell anyone, but I bought it mostly because of the color. Turns out I like how it plays a whole lot. But I know on the inside that it's probably mostly the color that makes me want to look down at it while it's spinning, not necessarily the unique feedback I get through this string.

The old, familiar feeling came from the response pads that it came with. They are Kentaro pads. Old-school black, textured rubber pads that were a breakthrough when they first hit the market. These used to be my favorite response pads. They feel great, grip hard, and stay out of the way when you want them to. But I found that silicone (instead of rubber) did not leave behind the tell-tale black residue on the string.

I played one string with these pads. Twisted one fresh for this yo-yo, and I have not changed it as of writing this. But I was reminded how I came to changing the string as often as I used to (which was often more than once a day). I can't stand a dirty-looking string. Even a bright color of the string makes me feel like it's dirty. Yo-yo string is supposed to be white!

The residue visible is from about two days of playing. Around the slipknot is what the string used to look like before playing. I can't stand it anymore, it's too dirty. This is the shortest that I have had a string last.

I thankfully had an envelope come with more of a non-staining silicone response pad. Gonna play this up now, and with a clean string.

a series of non sequiters

2010-01-20T11:28:00.000-08:00

i've been really discombobulated lately. i have no real 'theme', and yet i was compelled to post something anyhow, if only because i haven't in awhile (confessional).

my little boy says 'robot' all the time now, and then he talks like a robot. except he kind of says 'rabat', which makes me think of a mechanical rabbit terminating the characters from 'watership down'.

i can't tell if playing extremely 'high-end' unresponsive metal yo-yo's AND 'low-end' snappy wooden yo-yo's serves to enrich my play... or confuse it. i do like that the stuff connecting me to my yo-yo's is all the same. that feels good.

i bought myself an a-2 style leather jacket last week. it's the first leather jacket i've owned. stacy thinks it's 'a little boxy'. i wonder if marion ravenwood thought indiana's was 'a little boxy' too.

i'm going back to disney world in a few weeks. taking the little girl out of school for a full week. the principal is pretty aggro and might give me a hard time. bring it. steve doesn't like disney world cause it's so corporate, but i dig me some pirates of the carribean (i always misspell caribbean).

i have twisted and used 46 strings in about 3 months. got em all right here. you could play wiffleball with 46 strings, but it would be a pitchers' duel.

so i have 2 cats. one poops immediately outside the litter box (i can only assume it's for spite). the other insists on going outside as soon as the door is opened, where she promptly chews some grass, then comes back in to vomit. always on the carpet.

i like this frontstyle john-bot bucket mount a lot.

although there is nothing 'zen' about wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the kanji for 'zen' (or indeed about anything that proclaims to 'be zen'), there IS something 'zen' about irony. get it?

i hate all kinds of berries on principle, and their related ice cream/yogurt. except boysenberry.

it is 64 degrees here in nc on 1/19/10. i'm typing this in shirt sleeves on my porch.

shirt sleeves. what a ridiculous expression.

jonrob left spyy to do his own thing. it was pretty awesome to have been on a yo-yo team with him.

i'm making gumbo tonight in the crock pot, but totally forgot to buy okra at the store. what is gumbo without okra, i ask you?

most people won't seem satisfied unless they can put you in some kind of convenient box.

my little boy is up in the tree house, and i can smell his poopy diaper from here. if poopy diapers were bad guys, i would be like wolverine. ('i'm the best at what i do. but what i do isn't very nice... at all... in fact it's really disgusting.')

so i thought this string was pretty thick. then i started collaborating with john higby on a project, and he sent me a [bigger] cone to twist some string from. the string he sent me is like 'type 15'. so thick it'll hardly keep a twist at all, and when it does, it's literally the width of a no jive's gap. it's also left handed! we probably won't be using it.

i really want to get a new tattoo. of a triceratops skull.

yesterday i got a crown on a cracked tooth. getting the tooth shaved down and polished up and then having the thing stuck on with cement was mildly uncomfortable. it bothered me all day. felt like something was 'wrong' in my mouth. i went skating today and fell badly a few times while trying to get a launch ramp dialed. i'm shredded all over and it's pretty uncomfortable. doesn't bother me at all though, because somehow it feels as though it's 'supposed' to be that way.

Not Just Balls

2009-12-30T11:27:00.000-08:00

I have been making yo-yo string into braids and ropes and finding uses for them since... 2004~ish. This is one of the things that further convinces me that I am indeed a suitable fit for this Project.

For example, shoelaces that are more durable (and less expensive) than those found in stores. I make it a point to have at least one pair of shoes that has yo-yo string laces. I don't think I have ever gotten a comment about laces, but it's a personal thing. I know it's there, and that's all that really matters.

A keychain is the first thing I made out of used

yo-yo string. This was when I got my first

vehicle (a '95 Nissan "Matchbox" Truck), and didn't like the laniards that were sold in stores or given for free at events. I am also prone to losing things, so I wanted something unique that could only be mine (as nobody else in Topeka that I know plays yo-yo to this day). I could also call stores and easily describe the keychain in question that I lost there. Now that I think about it, I have neither lost these kind of keychains nor gotten a comment about them...

I can do some pretty baller bracelets and necklaces (given long enough string). This is the same design I learned for making hemp jewelry products. A cool yo-yo twist on a hippie classic. I think Ed needs about four of these (forget it, he's gonna open up a head shop and sell 'em).

I'm working on a single long string from the scraps I have collected. I plan to make some more shoelaces, and have this Project travel with me wherever I go. Gonna need about five meters, and have only two meters made during the last two months.

I also have about twenty strings in my ball... it's getting sizable. Ironically, making the ball is the most frustrating part of this Project. I couldn't ever imagine throwing these old friends in the garbage, but a ball just isn't what I want, I guess.

Note: Only one Cones-to-Balls string was sacrificed to the above-mentioned crafts. Other strings are unimportant enough to sacrifice to these things (of course, only after being lovingly played first).

Type Ten.

2009-12-24T05:38:00.000-08:00

I totally forgot these cones were Type 10.

Apparently, Ed's observation about how I've been demonstrating so long that I can just pick up anything and use it and recover and such....guess he was right.

Now I kinda feel like some sort of weird, quiet, largely-useless-but-still-vaguely-impressive super-hero.

USE ANY YO-YO OR STRING GUY!

Woo hoo.

type TEN?!?!?!?!

2009-12-23T04:32:00.001-08:00

so i was talking with j-deff yesterday, the pair of us glowing over The String's cosmic properties and commiserating over the difficulty associated with using it for 2-handed play. at one point, absolutely casually, jacob dropped a bomb on me. 'i didn't even realize my cone was type 10.'

... type 10?!?!

for the 2 months i've been playing it exclusively, i've operated under the assumption that the stuff was old 'industry-standard' type 8 (4x2) cotton. needless to say, i immediately cut off a small section and tore the stuff apart to count the strands: 5x2! type 10 indeed.

i've honestly never even heard of type 10 cotton. the only type 10 string i've played was some of the old 10x1 brazilian poly. but this explains a lot. it's pretty impossible to eyeball the physical distinction between the widths of 4x2 and 5x2, especially where it has the greatest impact (at the axle). however, the added width, heft, and rigidity of 2 strands of string bring along considerable surface area and friction. it's no wonder i've had a harder time hitting more complex tricks on wood with it, especially after the stuff breaks in. i thought i was going crazy.

it also explains the 2a situation. this stuff loops down like the dickens (the dickens, if you were unaware, do in fact loop down considerably). ordinarily, to bring loops up, you can widen your yo-yo's gap and/or shorten the string. i shimmed out the gaps on my 2a no jives to a degree that i thought bordered on the unreasonable, and STILL had to shorten the string to joseph harris-esque proportions to get it comfortable and consistent. knowing it's type 10 certainly does nothing to change the fact that it's decidedly thick for looping, but somehow it makes me feel more comfortable with it. i'm amused to realize that since switching to it this fall, i've been much more willing to go back to playing full-gap bearing yo-yo's (as opposed to slim, half-spec bearings). i wonder if the extra string width (which effectively reduces the gap by 2 strands) had anything to do with that.

anyway, i find it hilariously hypocritical that one can enter into a project like this with the intention of examining oneself and the way one approaches yo-yo... and yet not have the insight to examine the string itself so as to confirm its type. ah well.

THANKS FOR THE CATCH, J-DEFF.

eddie would go

2009-12-09T04:53:00.000-08:00

steve is sleeping in the next room. he, along with his kids and girlfriend, jenni, stopped off on their way back from his giant-sized, art basel art-show-spectacular in miami. i got them dunkin donuts coffee, and i put it in the oven to keep it warm... can you DO that?

btw, that means that TWO CONES are presently within about 12 feet of one another. i can FEEL the time-space continuum warping around my house as we speak. hopefully it won't mess up the foundation.

every time i get to watch steve throw for a few minutes, i'm reminded of how good he is at yoyoing; the kind of casual skill that is really only born of years spent doing it for a living. last night, we were talking about one of the skills he's mastered: recovery. performing -and more specifically, performing on wood- has ingrained within steve an unnatural (or maybe absolutely natural) ability to 'save' a trick-gone-bad. you know when you're playing a responsive yo-yo, and you commit to a huge flyaway dismount... and you're just WAITING for the yo-yo to return... and a few seconds later, you're still waiting... and you have time to wonder whether it's going to respond at all or just land with a thud upon your palm, the string draping impotently from your fingers? yeah, steve makes all of those. difficult tricks are cool and all, but it's always been the ability to save them, and to make it look EASY that has enamored me.

speaking of making the difficult look easy, the eddie was on last week. if you don't know what i'm talking about, i guess i'm not surprised... and yet... i can't help but feel a little pang of pity for you (i'm sorry - i know how obnoxious that sounds, but it's a reflex).

eddie aikau was a hawaiian waterman - in some respects he was THE hawaiian waterman. he did it all; surfed colossal waves, saved hubristic foundering haoles, dove for turtles and coral... and died while paddling his surfboard miles to shore in the dead of night in the effort to get help for the stranded traditional canoe, hokule'a. either directly or indirectly, he has influenced essentially anyone who has stepped on a surfboard in the modern era, and represents the roots, venerable traditions and aloha spirit of hawaii, the birthplace of 'the sport of kings'.

after his death, a contest was established in eddie's name. and just as eddie aikau was no ordinary man, so the event named after him is no ordinary event. most pro surf contests are held once a year over an assigned 'waiting period'. within a two week stretch when it 'usually' gets good, the competitors are 'on call'. this means that if there's no great surf, the contest will still eventually run in sub-optimal conditions. not so with the eddie. since aikau, himself, was larger than life, the contest that bears his name ONLY runs when oahu's biggest, most formidable break, waimea bay, eclipses the 20-foot mark consistently (which by hawaiian standards often translates to 30-40 foot faces). likewise, this contest doesn't just involve the top hot dog tour surfers. it's invitation only, and the contest is directed by george downing, one of a handful of guys who literally INVENTED big wave surfing. thus, the invitees range from standout 20 year-old competitors, to hawaiian big-wave specialists, to peers and family of eddie, himself. yesterday, i got to watch as eddie's own brother, 60 YEAR-OLD clyde aikau, got pummeled about the head, neck, and bodice by 12 foot shorebreak in the effort to make it outside to the reef. not only did he make it out, he also made the drop on a giant 25-foot wall, seemingly delivered to him straight from eddie's eternal spirit.

surfing at waimea is a really simple thing. at the same time, it's the antithesis of EASY. you have to make it outside through the currents and lethal shorebreak. you have to catch a wave (which frequently breaks at about 25 mph). you have to survive the 20 foot elevator-drop. and then you have to outrun the liquid mountain chasing you. it's not complicated; just near-impossible. and like steve recovering from a trick from which he's milked every ounce of energy, the eddie invitees make it look easy... like it's something that's meant to happen. that's how i want to play yo-yo. that's how i want to do ANYTHING... as though it were meant to happen. as though my own energy and contribution to the act seem natural and cohesive, rather than obscene. i think it's part will, and part knowing who you are. watching a man somehow right himself freefalling from the height of a house, as a thousand olympic swimming pools explode all around him underscores that recovery is, itself, an art. and (i'm sure you'll forgive my tacky, outmoded perspective) it's one that the newest, fanciest, yo-yo's often allow us to neglect.

another thing that i would love to see yo-yoing borrow from the eddie is the spirit of brotherhood. beneath the battle lines we draw between this or that company or this or that style, yo-yoers are fundamentally a tribe. the eddie surfers always seem to keep the contest's namesake in mind. everyone shares. no one gets snaked. no one focuses on the scores. it's an honor to BE THERE, and if you happen to win it, so much the better, but having been invited, you're already a champion. i think yo-yoing needs an eddie. i think that there's certainly a place for a world champion, and if there's ever any money in it, i'd love to see a yo-yoing world tour develop, like surfing's wct. but unlike most contests, which primarily divide the competitors, the eddie really serves to remind surfers that they're connected, and remind us that the most uncanny abilities in the most terrifying conditions are worth celebrating. i think yo-yoing needs an equivalent, which i guess would be a contest where dale oliver, steve, and zach gormley all threw down together... not to one-up each other, but to celebrate how rad yo-yoing is, each in his own way. who wouldn't want to watch upstarts and legends share the stage like that? now that i think on it... 'wheel of penalty' might be the closest thing we have to the eddie, which is pretty frickin' cool, though its zaniness may distract from its meaning.

i've compared surfing with yo-yoing before. i'm sure my tendency to do so betrays my own desperation to try to link my passions, but at the same time... both just express the manipulation of simple energies. i hear an awful lot of yo-yoers and surfers talk about being 'lost' in their respective passions. and though the lexicon and jargon may differ, the 'serious' yo-yoers and surfers i've met tend to remind me of each other, both in their general persistence and their ability to 'accept' life's complexities. the two things that set yo-yoing and surfing apart, however, are enormous. 1.) there is simply no fear of death inherent within playing yo-yo. if you're scared to play yo-yo cause you might hurt yourself or die, you need to be slapped. 2.) doing it is as easy as digging through your pocket. no need to travel. no need to await special conditions. just throw. while comfortable and convenient, these two differences make it somewhat more difficult to view and appreciate yo-yoing as a way of life, which was the real gift of eddie aikau, as is the contest that bears his name. the virtues of courage and patience have to be instilled and honed within the yo-yoer from other avenues. that said... yo-yoing can still teach us plenty. it teaches us to deal with the ephemeral; that our spin is destined to run out. it teaches us that innocence and art are not mutually exclusive, and that the capacity for both dwells within each of us. it teaches us to recover, and to make it look easy.

"PROFANITY!"

2009-12-02T12:31:00.001-08:00

That's what I yelled out loud. I evidently don't know enough four-letter words to express myself.

My 2A strings (the same pair I made in my last post) were giving me trouble, and I was tuning my wood axle Team Losis until I found a good setting. Tried seemingly everything, but they evidently just needed broken in.

Funny way to word it...

So I have to scrap both of these strings (they are a unit), measure and tension another, get the kinks out, all the while keeping my cat from eating them, then get them wound up, and after that find the proper length and gap width and all the other settings that I just made for the last pair of strings. Freaking mess, I just want to play with toys.

Ed made mention that making 2A strings is hard. Steve loops with Russells, and demonstrated for a billion years, so nothing's going to phase him. I'm finally finding out how hard and frustrating it really is for myself.

These cotton strings are wonderful for all of my other yo-yos. But I just cannot get them to work in my wood axle 'da Bombs. To make sure it was the strings and not just me... I cheated. Got a cotton string from my pile of leftovers, cut it, and tried some hops (what I have had trouble with recently). Yeah, it's these new strings.

I suppose it's because this string is so stiff, it doesn't start wrapping around the axle as readily. And ohhhhhhhhhhh, it's frustrating. I was double-looping the axle for a while, but that just wasn't working.

But these new strings are OK... maybe I didn't make the last ones right? Too much tension?

Nah, forget the excuses, I just am not good at looping and need practice. Gotta get on it.

fake trees and net lights

2009-11-30T05:21:00.000-08:00

it's christmas-time! it's christmas-time!

i recognize that geeking out over the holidays may potentially diminish my cool-factor, but i continue to do so annually... without - as yet - incurring any apparent ill effects.

after awakening from our collective post-thanksgiving somnolence, one of my family's favorite pastimes has got to be 'griswolding'. we cruise through the various local cookie-cutter neighborhoods in search of quality holiday lighting. much like any serious endeavor, it's kind of a zen art. any schmoe can pull their buick out of wal-mart with an 8-foot plastic tree and 12 giant-size inflatables and a skein of extension cords and strew them about their lawn (and/or roof).

the ever-present 'fake tree' phenomenon seriously chafes my mental thighs. 'i'm protecting the environment by using this plastic tree every year.' a.) how many fake-tree people SERIOUSLY use the same fake tree year after year? b.) how environmentally-conscious is it really to buy a ginormous monstrosity, crafted in laos and sold in a discount superstore, composed of plastic, wire, and fiber-optic cable, and destined to end up in a landfill? is it really more environmentally-conscious than chopping down a tree which has exhaled delicious oxygen for a decade, and which will seamlessly biodegrade, leaving space on the mountain for a new sapling? anyway, beyond that, i just don't want to be a person who communes with plastic trees (or plastic string, for that matter). that's in your living room though, and honestly, not even MY discerning holiday-eye is so well-trained as to be able to spot a fake tree from the street.

regardless, as far as christmas decorations go, i tend to be impressed not by quantity, but by quality. just like in yo-yoing... character is important.

our character is revealed (or if you prefer, made manifest) in every step we take. it's revealed in the way we sign our credit card receipts and in the choices we make at the store. it's in the art we create, in the yo-yo's we play, and in each string we twist (or in the ones we yank out and then casually discard). i get inordinately cheesed off by people who want to have xmas lights, but don't feel like it's worth 20 minutes of effort. to my mind, the most egregious crime against 'seasonal authenticity' is what i will term 'Effing Net Lighting'. i'm not sure if this phenomenon existied when i was growing up in the 80's; maybe i just didn't notice it... but sweet christ[mas], those bush/tree-lighting arrangements that have been conveniently pre-braided into pristine nets are just aesthetically awful.

like every facet of the convenience that our society has come to worship, net-lights have become ubiquitous. driving through the neighborhoods, we amble past houses where no light seems out of place. the bushes and shrubs are like perfect little luminous checkerboards... and yet... the rub is that there NEVER seems to be just the right amount of net to cover ALL of the shrubs. inevitably, there will be an area to the side or the top that falls suddenly black, bringing the laziness of the homeowners into glorious relief.

i'm not actually that bitter about it. stacy and i actually enjoy these drives, calling out 'NET-LIGHTS' when we see them poorly employed, and 'OOOOOOOH' when we see a house that was clearly well-decorated. she's way nicer about it than i am (although she DID some up with the idea of just buying a few links of net lights and, as a sort of statement, draping them miserably over a section of the lawn for the season - frickin' brilliant!). i don't mean to be draconian about seasonal lighting, but my dad taught me to really rejoice in the effort. it's NICE to spend an hour or two in the lawn, first untangling the gordian knot i inevitably left myself the previous year, and then enduring twigs to the eyes, ears, and throat as i battle the japanese maple in the attempt to encircle it. my house isn't winning any awards for Most Glorious, but at least i work for it. i'm not just casting a net out like a balinese fisherman, watching it drape haphazardly over the shrubbery, plugging it in and calling it a day.

to me, it's just like yo-yo, which is fundamentally an exercise in expressing sincerity. this project sets itself apart from the attitude of convenience, and taking the time to twist string these past few months has made it much more clear to me. i had spirit bomb pretty well dialed on my no jive a few months ago. for a year, going from that trick to shoot the moon was my barometer for whether my yo-yo's were set up right, and whether my skill-set was up to snuff. using this new-old stuff, which is thicker, stiffer, and less forgiving than any cotton i've played in the past (minus, perhaps, the stock tom kuhn strings, which feel like steel cable), i find spirit bomb pretty near impossible. i maybe hit it once every 4 tries now, and ONLY with a newly-twisted string. to be certain that my skill hadn't decayed, i dug out one of my old pre-twisted strings and had it first throw (and yes, i put said string back away immediately).

at that point, i remembered that using this string isn't about being better 'technically', so much as it is about improving 'emotionally', or maybe even 'spiritually'. it's about recognizing that while certain tricks may be out of range for me, others are delightfully obvious. for example, this string stalls better than anything i've played (EXAMPLE), and it's enabled me to come up with new and ridiculous stuff (like THIS - lol) that i've never really considered. it's truly Responsive, as in it links me fully with the yo-yo, and enables each of us to Respond to the other. and the stuff positively SINGS on wood. i've found myself playing my no jives so much lately that the smell of scorched maple feels as familiar as my mother's voice. and when i want to do something 'tricky', even things that were automatic on lighter string, like mach 5 or triangulation... i have to work for it. i have to earn it. and when i can fight through the initial angry reflex that treats that fact as an inconvenience, i recognize it for what it is: a pleasure. it's PLAY, dammit.

sometimes you have to put blinders on to see the big picture. sometimes you have to limit yourself to appreciate your own limitless nature. the limit may be a thick cotton string, or it maybe the inconvenience of slowly arranging your holiday lights. for the effort you put into either (or anything), you appreciate the fruits of your labor that much more. i don't want to be a douche about fake trees and net lights. i'm really no one to judge; i just know what i like and try to express what i feel. as my wife explained to our daughter during our most recent drive-by, "people don't really decorate their houses for others. they decorate for themselves. whether they work extra hard on it or not, they light their houses up, and it's beautiful and meaningful, and they like it."

people don't really yo-yo for other people. they yo-yo for themselves. whether they work extra hard on it or not, they play how they want to play, and it's beautiful and meaningful, and they like it.

2A Strings: Half of a Whole

2009-11-20T10:51:00.000-08:00

I make strings intended for dual-yo-yo play differently than strings for single-yo-yo play. I don't know how I got the idea to do this, but it just seemed right.

Here is the process:

First, I measure the string (nothing new). This one is twice my wingspan (it turned out a little short: remembering this for next time).

I add More tension. I am stepping on one of the ends, and twisting the other between my forearms.

I'm not sure if Ed and Steve do this step, but it immediately gives the string the tension I like. No UFO needed to tighten it, and it feels better than having a string with too little tension.

I then knot the two ends together. Adding more tension does put kinks in the string, so I have to twist those out now (the most time-consuming part of my personal string-making process).

I center the knot so that I have two equal-length strings on each side. John Huber taught me this at Worlds when t

here was an A-squared workshop. This is the same technique he uses to put two yo-yos on one string.

I let the tension in the string twist itself, a few inches at a time.

I finally tie knots and cut the strings now. This separates the one string I made into two entities.

I play them, until one breaks. I don't

have a reason for doing my dual-strings like this, but it just makes sense.

This face is to explain how I need to use a razor instead of biting the string. My front teeth don't come together (seriously), so I need an implement to do it for me.

Dude, you change that string and I'll smack ya.

2009-11-10T08:19:00.000-08:00

At my regular yo-yo club meeting this past Sunday, I had an interesting moment...

One of our regulars asked to use my Boss, which I'd twisted a string for about an hour prior. I said "sure" and then he picked up the yo-yo and said "I'll change the string..." and I actually jumped up and yelled "NO!"

He was being courteous, because he knows that I've always been weird about using the same string as someone else. Particularly since kids are grubby little beasts and they always hand back my yo-yos with the most indescribable gunk on the string. And as a smoker, my strings get nasty to begin with...so you can only imagine what kids must do for me to actually balk at using the same strings as them. Eep.

The thing that was interesting was that I've never in my life made any effort to protect a string. They've always been the pinnacle of disposable. And here I've started this project to completely counteract almost 15 years of habit.

I guess I don't have any better way to explain how weird that moment was for me, but there it was.

I've twisted two strings so far. Haven't been playing a whole lot, due to being just generally busy with life and other such messy endeavours. One is on my Boss for 1A, the other is on a raw blasted Skyline I've been using for counterweight.

Damn these strings feel good, though. Nice and stiff. I swear they last longer...but maybe I'm just paying more attention.

So what's changed?

2009-11-09T12:26:00.000-08:00

After playing with the new string for a week or so, I wanted to look at what was different already. The most noticeable thing is my fingers are not as damaged, especially considering how much I have been playing yo-yo (which is more than usual).

The fissions in the skin that are usually on my index finger have all but healed up. This is just what has happened over lots of throwing freehand, and how I hold the string while the yo-yo hits the bottom. The marks from 2A (and 1A) on my middle fingers are only noticeable after lots of 2A. My hands were nothing comparable to those of Augie Fash, but the damage on them has gotten less severe, nonetheless.

I have found that having an extra layer of string in the slipknot helps not only lengthen the string life, but also reduces the pressure exerted on the finger itself. This is possibly working against me: I have had the same strings (four different ones at the same time: a long 1A, a short 5A, and shorter yet 2A strings) for this entire time. The texture is divine, and the thickness is what I have been wanting for years. It is a joy to play with these strings, and totally worth the hassle to twist them up.

As far as making progress with tricks, I have tried "harder" simple tricks (goal met). No really new stuff, but I did smoothen out some old stuff I was working on already. I will show this in a new video soon enough ;)

I have seemingly made reverse progress for 2A (goal failed). Maybe I need to change the strings: the tension has leveled out so there are no more kinks, but it just doesn't feel right. I did a Tangler and got both yo-yos up to my hands (I still consider that a 3A trick, so no real progress).

I have not tried much 3A (goal failed), but I did freshen up on Velvet Rolls and Blueline mount stuff. Even did a Double trapeze. I heard about a two-handed hook, and realized how hard it actually was when I gave it a go. I don't have an idea of what I want to do, but I do enjoy just exploring all the simple maneuvers that 3A has to offer. I did do a wind-up that I have not seen before... maybe that's worth something.

Non-yo-yo related things have not changed much. I'm eating more fruit and vegetables. But that's just because meat is expensive. I have been riding my bike around town and to work so that I avoid using irreplaceable fossil fuels, but that's what I did all summer. I'm talking to people more... but it may be just because I want a break from school for twenty minutes.

Imma gonna go study. I will share my bit about 2A strings soon.

busted!

2009-11-04T08:16:00.001-08:00

my cats have been puking a shit-tonne today. just realized that and thought you should know.

I BROKE MY FIRST STRING!

i was doing a regen trick i call "sub-dural hematoma" (on account of its tendency to hit me in the skull). the regen snagged a bit and then when it released and hit bottom, KABLOOIE. that was actually the sound of my soul rather than the string. i was beginning to think these suckers were as invulnerable as they are organic. ah well.

here's the ball so far. 9 dead strings. i'm still loving them, although i will admit, getting my wood yo-yo's dialed for 2-handed with them has been a giant pain. i've talked to steve. talked to dale oliver. changing the way i set my no jive gaps has helped, but man... getting them just right takes WAY more work than pre-twisted. gives me that much more respect for guys like barney akers and bob rule, who would have had to pull up to a demo, twist a pair of strings, and make it look effortless. connecting myself to them in any way feels totally obscene, but going through this process is an education.

i'd also like to note that i scored some new pants yesterday. i bought a pair of levi's shrink-to-fit. not as cool as "good jeans" but they were cheap and seemed of better quality than the levi's i'd bought in the past. i hate fashion (though i seem to really like a lot of guys that are all about it), but i love the idea of buying a pair of jeans and watching them grow with you. it kind of reminds me of this project, maybe because there's some reciprocal interaction between the person and the object; both kind of reflect each other. playing a string until it just can't take the strain... you've put a lot of yourself into it. all the dirt in this string ball is the dirt of my life. these 9 strings (i know cause i keep a tally - yes that's my kid's dinosaur sock) are permeated with crud and schmutz i've accumulated while watching caitie at her ballet... while trick-or treating... while watching the sunrise this morning...

it's garbage... but it's also sacred to me.

anyway, steve is the guy to ask about pants. dude knows, and i'm sure he won't mind if you hit him up. i did my hot soak, and now i'm just going to wear these suckers until they snap like this string.

anyway, much love from bulk-string world. i'm hungry. who wants to bet me i can't eat 64 gorton's fish sticks?

Greetings

2009-10-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, my name is Jacob. It doesn't say, though...

Introductions are in order, I guess...

I live in Kansas, far away from much of the yo-yoing community. This isn't so bad, with the Internet and all, but I also think isolation is important in coming up with original trick ideas. I have not won any yo-yo contests, but I scored well enough to get my name mentioned. I made a couple of videos, but they were not a big investment compared to Sector_Y stuff and some of the newer stuff coming out. Can't Stop took six hours to film and edit, and then a bit to export and upload. String Appreciation (funny how that I did that a year ago, now) is another noteworthy video. It also acts a monument to the first time I took an idea and just sprint forward with it. I got a lot of really great feedback on it, which gave me the courage to make progress on being who I wanted to become in a wider scope than just concerning yo-yoing. Oh yeah, and if you ever got fresh-brewed tea from somebody at a yo-yo contest, it's good to see you again.

But onto the subject of this blog: as soon as I heard about Project: Cones to Balls, I was intrigued. I was looking forward to following the posts and seeing some of the journey these men were going on. I then heard that I was being invited to go along with these esteemed fellows on the same journey that already had me hooked... heavens, what karma did I cash in on to deserve this!?! I told everyone I thought would care about the great news, and soon made plans to give away remnants of my bundles of pre-twisted string to some friends. I didn’t want unnecessary temptation later (now), and I who doesn’t like receiving gifts?

At the same time I was basking in my good fortune, I also found myself asking "why me?". I really don't know what Steve and Ed were thinking when my name came up. Sure glad it happened, but I'm still unsure as to why. I'm really not anybody special. I was asked, seemingly out of the blue, by Steve to join Ed and himself (two very influential and “famous” people in yo-yoing). They have lives, kids, careers, and a history of making yo-yoing cool. Me, I’m a kid with a cat, half a college degree, the same part-time job for five years, and little (if any) “public recognition” in the yo-yo world. And I got asked to do this wonderful project?! Simply flabbergasted.

I have been wondering what I would do if making my own string becomes too tedious. I couldn’t think of much else that I liked to do. I would either be bored, or be studying. I guess that makes me lame.

I have a strategy to enjoy this cone to it's fullest: dual yo-yo play. I have dabbled in 3A, and I already jumped the first big hurdles of 2A. I intend to be able to do Warp Drive consistently, develop better transitions, and get comfortable with cross-handed loops and punching bags. I am not merely wanting to blow through this whole cone really quickly. One of the reasons I want to play two yo-yos at once is that I find I am focused more, and I am always pushing the limits of what I can do. I feel like I really do learn something with every individual throw, two at a time. I believe this echos the intention of making "every throw count", just like the project is supposed to do.

Two strings were made by me today (visible above, along with other string I took off of my yo-yos): one full-length for 1A, and another string (that I split into two) for 2A. Thus far, this string is what I have been wanting to play for years. Soft, thick enough to offset the enormous gaps in yo-yos today, boring-white colored, and I even get to put my own personal touch into each and every one. The 2A string(s) are about six inches too short, and have little kinks that probably mean I twisted the string too tightly to start with. They have mellowed out in an hour of play, and these cotton strings are stiff and sturdy enough to last for a good, long time. And I have a whole cone of them waiting for me!? (squeak!)

I expect the tricks I choose to do will change towards harder, and paradoxically less-complex tricks, much like Ed has alluded to before. I think Steve really liked my Punt Start, and that is kinda where I want some of my tricks to keep going towards. I also do some hubstack-freehand tricks, for which Steve is unrivaled. More of those would be fun.

I will be updating with my thoughts on this journey, and keeping in touch with Steve and Ed better than I could have ever imagined.

-Jacob

Jacob Deffenbaugh

2009-10-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

Jacob Deffenbaugh is our Third Man for the Cones To Balls project!

He received his cone today, and will be starting shortly.

I've been waiting to start until Jacob got his cone so I'll be starting mine, officially, today. Ed is already rolling with his.

This should be interesting. ;)

what i ate yesterday

2009-10-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

yep. i'ma tell you.
first, you should know that i don't always eat this ridiculously badly. i mean i'm 5'10, 203, so it's not like i'm wasting away on rice cakes or anything... but yesterday was pretty crazy.

i don't count calories; don't keep track of what i eat. that's part of why i composed this list, which accounts for everything i ingested yesterday in order. i also did it because it occurs to me that, as a society, we rarely consider where our food comes from. how many people in the developed world hunt for their food? how many are subsistence farmers, or grow even a substantial portion of what they consume. where did your lunch come from? most people couldn't tell you. i'm conflicted as to whether i think that's a 'huge problem', but this blog is kind of about metacognition; about questioning the processes we take for granted, whether they pertain to pulling string from a skein or the way we live our lives in general.

so here you go... yesterday i ate:
• 8:15 am: half a chiquita banana
• 8:15 am: the last 6 oz. of a minute maid orange juice carton (no pulp)
• 9:00 am: toast with honey from a bee farm (do they call them 'bee farms'?)
• 11:45 am: a shit-ton of nacho cheese doritos dipped in tostitos queso 'cheese sauce'
• 11:45 am: carolina blonde ale
• 12:19 pm: marshmallows and graham crackers in chocolate fondue
• 12:37 pm: another carolina blonde
• 1:45 pm: a nathan's hot dog
• 4:49 pm: a reg. jersey mike's roast beef sub
• 4:49 pm: a tall glass of water
• 8:18 pm: a giant margarita

... you know... in text, that isn't nearly as bad as i thought. the queso and fondue back to back was decidedly NOT a winning combination, but i actually expected it to be worse. of those items, i have a pretty good idea where the banana, the honey, the beer, the chocolate, and the water come from. the other stuff (especially the "cheese", the hot dog stuff, and the doritos)... i have no idea. it's hard to eat something with reverence and gratitude if you have no idea where it comes from, you know? when i eat an animal, silly and antiquated though it may sound, i try to 'thank' the animal. i feel uneasy when i eat a nathan's hot dog, not because it's gross or anything (it's delicious)... but because what am i thanking? 12 animals? for bits of their feet or eyes or intestines?

i LIKE that when i twist a string, i know i pulled the thread off the spool, and that the thread was made ages ago from cotton fibers. i like that it's simple, and i can trace it to the earth in just a step or two, unlike most processed foods where the effort feels like the 'kevin bacon' game. i really don't know how to connect the Disodium Guanylate in my doritos to the earth, or to anything more simple. and yet, i love me some doritos.

since this project started for me 2 weeks ago, i've spent 4 strings. 4. never in my life have i gone through strings so slowly, and i don't think it's the inconvenience that's doing it. i think just the simple knowledge that i'm TRYING to make them last - that that's the POINT - has made it much easier. when they get too gross, i discard them (i guess i could launder them), but the standard of 'too gross' has definitely started to shift, and it occurs to me again that i'm gonna be on this journey for a good, long time.

ed's first dead string

2009-09-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

"it's so haaaaaaard... to say goodbyyyyyyyye... to YESTerdaaaaaaaayy..."
when i was 12, i went to see jodeci, boyz 2 men, and mc hammer live in concert.

so i killed my first string. it didn't break; i just played it into total ickiness... i'm not squeamish, but when a string is so gross and frayed that it starts to impact play, i have to switch out. that first one was good though, and it now forms the core of the ball which will, in time, come to envelop it.

the stuff plays great at first... after i twist it, the string settles into a level of tension that is just TOO low. i have to throw a 5 second ufo to get the consistency that i like. but then, obviously it kinks up all crazy until it's broken in. the trials of figuring out the tension has led me through every imaginable response setup on my flying v's. it's hard to be 'ok' with the idea that this string is harder to play than slick-6 or poly, or even pre-twisted cotton. i'm just not consistent with it yet. my yo-yoing isn't anything special, but some of my 'harder' tricks are all but impossible with this stuff (at least insofar as i've tried). it's difficult to temper yourself and say "that's not the kind of yo-yoing that's appropriate for me right now." we kind of train ourselves to hold onto the mindset that the longest, most kinked and complicated combos have the greatest value. playing old, thick, rope-like cotton starts to dissolve those assumptions away, and it's a little scary (because why did i even LEARN that hard stuff?) i'm led now to do simpler, shorter tricks, and as it turns out... yo-yoing is just as fun and just as meaningful that way.

it's gratifying to recognize that string is not 'just' string. it's kind of like when your power is out and you realize for a few hours how pathetic and useless we've become as a race. i'm used to treating the string as if it's 'extra', as in 'not really part of the yo-yo'; just an expendable little doohickey that, though it enables play in the first place, has no real value. having to twist it and fight it and maintain it in order to play, however, has already made me realize that it's pretty important, and easy to take for granted.

i have a closetfull of string; all sorts. i've put it all into a big box and i've moved that to a very high, very inconvenient spot in the attic, just so i won't be tempted. i'm not actually afraid that i will be, but this is a project i mean to really commit to, and i felt that putting my string away was a nice ritualistic gesture.

i've also started a log. within, i'm just going to keep track of how many strings i wind, and which yo-yo's they go on. i have a lot of yo-yo's, and a lot of cotton string. even though THIS cotton feels rougher and stiffer than most, i don't want to 'accidentally' cheat, so i want to know which yo-yo's have this string. i'm also curious as to how many strings the cone will produce. so far i've twisted 7.

rogue 5 standing by

2009-09-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

good god.

i received my cone a few hours ago, and i am... underway.

the box was small and apparently insignificant, but i really wasn't prepared for its contents. i'd told myself 'oh sure. i'll play cotton for a year.' upon ripping open the box and hefting the spool however, it became immediately obvious that this is A LOT of string... and twisting it is going to be ENORMOUSLY inconvenient.

bear in mind, i'm not saying the latter with a sad, burdened heart. i want to be inconvenienced. i signed up for it. my whole life (and probably yours, too) is built around convenience. it's become a god of sorts, and we're all idolaters. between our cars and dishwashers and our pills and our cheeseburgers... every aspect of our lives is dominated by the theme of convenience.

what do we do for ourselves anymore?

you might say that twisting my own cotton string isn't a big way to shrug off that mantle, but i'm a yo-yo player. string is a necessity, and the more you play, the more you consume. i wouldn't say that i'm overly wasteful, but this project isn't so much about waste as it is appreciation. am i really too busy to twist my own string? there's a lot of fat i can trim from my days when i look at it honestly. yo-yoing is important to me; it's worth a few extra minutes here and there. during those minutes, every day, my pledge (or intention, anyway) is to remind myself that playing yo-yo is the reward. it's worth it.

i've twisted two strings so far. i actually videoed the first one. the process took me 03:53. the string i ended up with was a little short, but certainly playable. the texture of this string (when twisted) is divine. far stiffer and thicker than the pre-twisted cotton you get from the online stores, it feels similar to the string that comes on the tom kuhn yo-yo's i've bought. managing tension is going to be one of the main travails. i'm pretty sure i can refine my technique to get strings twisted pretty quickly.

i think i'll be especially concerned with making the strings last. every throw is one step closer to the string's demise, and that's brought into staggering relief when you have to measure, twist, cut, tie, adjust, etc. the hope is that by the end (or at this rate by the beginning), we'll have a deeper appreciation for the throws to which we commit.

this string is not easy to play. it will NOT respond like highlights or your favorite 'boutique' type 6 poly or even pre-twisted cotton. nailing the tricks i love to nail is going to be a challenge, but again, all the more rewarding for that. if i were really concerned with 'progressing' along the extrinsic lines of learning faster, longer, harder tricks... this project would constitute an egregious error. anyone who knows me though knows that's not really what i'm about. i think this project is going to drive my yo-yoing deeper 'inside'. i think (or hope) it'll make me less concerned with what tricks i can do, and more concerned with what the tricks i do mean to me.

enough typing. i'm gonna go play, otherwise this thing'll last for damn ever.

Plus One

2009-09-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

Ed received his cone of string today, and while I was digging around in my attic I made an exciting discovery:

I have a third cone of untwisted yo-yo string.

Ed and I spoke and we have an idea for a Third Man...now we just need to see if he's into the project.

Thanks for your patience with this....we'll be getting underway shortly!

Cones To Balls: Introduction

2009-09-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

Back in the "glory days" of yo-yo play, pre-twisted string was something of a luxury. The original yo-yo demonstrators simply had large cones of untwisted string, and would make their own as they needed them.

These are cones of untwisted yo-yo string:

Back in 1999 on the Vans Warped Tour, Mark McBride & Steve Brown decided to collect up all the used string from the tour and wind it into one giant, stinky ball.

This is a ball of used yo-yo strings:

One of these cones is being shipped off to Ed Haponik in North Carolina. The other will remain in Ohio with Steve Brown. Once Ed acknowledges receipt of his cone, Project Cones To Balls will begin.

Both Ed and Steve will ONLY use yo-yo strings they hand-twist themselves from their cones for a period of one year or until their cone runs out....whichever comes first.

Both players will be allowed to pre-twist strings for themselves to use later, but no more than 15 at a time.

The purpose of this:

We are a disposable culture. We use things and throw them away and never think twice about them. We rarely use anything to it's fullest potential or to the true end of its life-span because it's cheap and easy to just toss it and get something newer or fresher. Yo-Yo string is an object which, by it's nature, must be replaced often. They are used and thrown away without any thought given other than "Oh, time for a new string" and off they go. But if the act of replacing a string becomes tedious, and the act of throwing away a string becomes important, then it forces the player to make every throw count. If every time you throw your yo-yo it places you one step closer to having to sit down and twist, measure, cut, and tie-off a new string for yourself then you are far more likely to place greater value on each throw and try a lot harder to make each throw count.

So, for one year or until they run out, Ed & Steve are going to make every single throw count. This blog will serve as their running journal of the process, the pitfalls, the insights, and general musings on the state of yo-yo play as they attempt to do it the hard way for a very long time.