Greetings

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

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

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

"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

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

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

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.