Brief Update: Adventures in throwing, or rather not much throwing

General Yo-Yo
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Disneyland vacation going on right now. A few updates:

Packed some essentials: yoyos and a kendama.

Drive from Sacramento to Anaheim uneventful. I managed to do the whole drive. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but for me it is as long distance driving does NOT get along well with me. I am paying for it.

On the drive Friday, at a Denny’s, I think I ran into the parents or grandparents of a thrower on this forum who I think posted was taking a 2 year something or other to Mexico. They saw my DM2 on my holder(not one sold here) and had a short conversation with them.

Saturday, while visiting my wife’s friends in the area, it turned out the people whose house we were at, their son decided to take up playing yoyo. I hear bearing spin noises, turned around and he was trying to throw a ProZ with a deteriorating string. I set him up with a new string, corrected his throwing mistakes and showed him a few basics. He needs a club to keep him motivated. Odds are, his parents will be contacting me. They were impressed with my pathetic skills. The good thing is that I’m sure there are other kids throwing yoyos in Orange.

A little background: These vacations are a war. I go to have fun, it seems the rest want to have strife. It’s just a constast pain in the rear people going about on an expensive trip to NOT have fun.

Anyhow, I’m carrying the same red DM2 on my holder in the park in plain view. It hasn’t raised an eyebrow. Odd.

Sunday, my 3rd child got injured on the Pirate’s Lair(formerly Tom Sawyer Island). Cut above the right eye, required a bunch of stitches. It went all the way through to the bone. I was trying to round up 2 of the other kids to get the gang back together, when #3(who I was trying to locate) had this incident while my wife had #4 going potty. Another parent brought my kid out, I applied pressure, asked for a little help. In case of legal stuff, I’m not going to go into excessive detail. I will say two things, despite the fact I’m not happy with this happening: Disney staff did the best they could to get the issue addressed as quickly as they could, and 2: I’m not planning any legal action. That’s not how my mind works. Anyhow, after the ambulance ride(no sirens, I stabilized her and stopped the bleeding while not even breaking my cool), cleaning and stitches, she’s demanding to go back into the park. That’s good, we have 2 more scheduled days. Hey, I paid for annual passes, I’m gonna use the crap outta them!

Wednesday is the return trip. This will coincide with meeting kids I got into yoyo’ing in June 2012 on a trip centered around going to Disneyland. A short side trip may be stretched out to check progress on the kids, provide strings(perhaps) and give advice. I guess I’m responsible for this mess, so I gotta clean up after myself.

I think Sunday, I’m running a skill toy meet for my group in Sacramento. I gotta get the community around me more active and interactive/interacting and getting out and getting together. It’s not about growth, it’s about community.

When I get back, #3 has a yoyo. I think she’s wanting to actually play it now. Time to bust out a fresh string on that modified shape ProZ I gave her quite some time ago and let her at it.

Time to get rest. Full day of mayhem at Disney planned. If I didn’t have to push a stroller, I could throw a bit on the walk to or from the hotel to the park. The crowds have been intense so far so throwing in the park would not have been wise. It wouldn’t be wise anyways even on low-crowd days. They are setting up the stage area in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle for taping the Christmas parade. We might end up somehow being involved in that.

I got fresh strings on my throws, so I’m good to go with Type X, and I have plenty of spares!

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Hey, actually heading down there in about an hour! Might bump into you, never know.

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Never ceases to amaze me how someone can pay big bucks to go to the happiest place on earth and be miserable. It’s like they take it as a challenge.

That and all the fat out of shape kids in the age 6-10 range being pushed around in strollers. Something wrong when a fat, out of shape smoker like me can do the parks at age 40, but you see kids that are literally so big their legs are sticking out a foot or more out of the front of the stroller getting pushed around buy their parents.

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Was just there last night, left because of the intense crowds. As a AP holder, I’m going to go during the week. Did some shopping, didn’t bother with my yoyo either. Sometimes I would throw in a long line (Grizzly Rapids) during the summer, or with my FHZ light up during the now gone Electronica…

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OK, the 19th will be my final day FULL day in the park. It will most likely be Disneyland. Not sure what I’ll be wearing. Clothing yes. Most likely one of my Disney ballcaps(small logo), not a Studio42 hat, and cargo shorts. I’d say “look for the parent about to strangle their kids”, but that merely narrows stuff down quite a bit. Annual passes rock, and I’ll be there briefly Wednesday.

The crowds on Sunday were intense, no question about it. Monday was a breeze. I spent all day in California Adventure. We ran into the RN who helped us the day before. We got some passes. We also finally got on Radiator Springs Racers. I did enjoy it, but it wasn’t quite as I had envisioned it, but that’s OK. I look forward to going again.

Having advanced knowledge of the merchandise offerings of the park scored big for me. I was stopped for having my DM2 on a holder at the security check-point. They said “nope, can’t bring it in”, I said “you sell Duncan Butterfly’s in the Magic Shop”, and they were “well, that’s different” and I said “you can do just as much, if not MORE damage with that yoyo in the hands of an unskilled player, and here you are SELLING them in the park”. The manager had no comeback except “OK, you’re fine”. That will bring up another issue elsewhere on the forum.

I also noted a few other people IN the parks playing with yoyos… Interesting.

Kid update: She’s ripping it up as if nothing happened. We got her a hat to keep the sun off the injury. She loves the hat.

Loving my Annual pass again. Will be back in March after CalStates at some point.

However, outside the park, I’m having to wait around a lot to eat. No, don’t get excited. There’s this Vietnamese place that is constantly FULL but we’ve never had to wait more than 15 minutes. I have been throwing to keep myself entertained while we wait. The food is good s well.

Also, I’ve been having to have throw sessions at the hotel to quite literally wind-down.

Keep in mind that YYE wants the yoyo to embody whatever it can be. It’s a tool that can be used for many things, depending how the user can employ it. The therapeutic properties are returning UNLESS I end up hitting myself in the head, but that hasn’t happened for a while.

I also need to bring my “party set”. I do have to build it. The new glowing Loop 1080’s are must have, so I must order a pair. I have the glowing DieNasty and the Magic YoYo D5 Dark Sprite in glowing delrin. I have the FHZ Pulse, so that has to go into that pack. Still need to find an ideal sacrificial off-string to use my Shinwoo light-up kit in, I’m thinking a clear Aeronaut might be an ideal choice. Still, I also need to order a new YYE 8-space competition bag for such events.

Quick note about the kids:
OMG…
Richard has a fit when the two youngest get FULL churros instead of sharing one. What difference does it make? He was getting a full one regardless.
Elizabeth(eldest) threw a fit when she ran off on the King Triton Merry Go Round and I called her back to join the group. It’s not easy moving 4 kids quickly through confined space, especially when 2 are small.
Isabella(the head laceration injury) was fine except for her hat on Toy Story Mania, and that was because she knocked it off putting the glasses on. She did have concern during dinner because I told her Disneyland was closed. She was upset because she thought apparently, “That’s it, no more Disneyland”. That issue was quickly resolved.
The youngest was fine until she missed her nap, then she finally did nap so all is well.

With the park once again closing early, I think I will be trying to wear out a few strings to recover from my daily trauma!

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Brief update:

Not visiting the house I visited last year. So, no yoyo lessons.

Why?

Well, comes down to multiple things, mostly surrounding an excuse-based lifestyle, laziness(not mine), complication for the purposes of needless complication, and of course, the old standby: lack of communication.

Long story short:
My son left a jacket in Vietnam. I said “I’ll pay to ship it back”, but NO. Someone visiting will bring it back. Reminder: my trip was in late March/Early April, and these visitors were visiting after we left. OK, so now they have the jacket, but check this:
Apparently international travel is no big deal, but mailing a box with a jacket in it is apparently “too much to handle”.

Anyhow, this veers off topic.

Yoyo Summary:
No summary. Haven’t done squat.

Disneyland notes of interest:
This Star Wars Droid Factory thing is neat that they have. I made a few.
Got stuck in the projection room at the Indiana Jones ride. Was probably stuck there 15 minutes but it felt longer.
The View taped an episode at Disneyland while I was there.

Trip over, pretty much. A short morning visit, hit “small world” for one last ride, then some shopping, lunch with food to go and a 400 mile return drive. I may buy an over-priced Butterfly to make a point to the bag screeners.

Awaiting me when I get home will be a package from YYE and some other Ebay items(nyyr) after my Vacation Hold expires tomorrow.

After that, a very long write-up on my Disneyland experience when dealing with injuries in the park. It’s got a positive spin.