February update:
Well, came off a bad concert on February 1, 2013. Just a rolling attitude show by pot-smoking idiots. After the show, they toked it up for 2 hours. Tech rider was full of erroneous information as well.
So, how are things going? Other than massive downward spiral from that show, things are pretty good.
1: I’m almost done with a final video project I need to wrap up.
2: I need to produce 30 copies of another project, but that needs me to order discs and ink for the media robot, and I don’t feel like spending $100 on it right now.
3: I need to get a new tire for the truck. Last of the older tires. Fortunately it got me to the event and back safely. This is why you should inspect your tires frequently. It will cost $179 to replace. Fortunately, my truck is a dually, so that means I have two tires per side on the rear axle. I’ve had tires fail on me before. One failed due to age, the other failed due do I think some damage from rolling out of a parking lot after a gig. Either way, I made it home safely. In this situation, this venue was less than 10 minutes from my house.
With projects wrapping up, that leads to new small projects, most of which are personal stuff, so no need to mention those. You might want to read this as “largely nothing to do with skill toys”.
It should be noted that outside of a post to the thread for inspirational spin top videos and the PM informing me of the thread discussing my rather abrupt departure, I have only logged into YYE’s forum a couple of times to see if any PM’s to me had their notices to me bounce. I have not read anything on the forums.
New throws:
Well, been buying a lot.
I have some leads on some stuff I gotta be hush-hush about.
I am also eyeing some big ticket stuff from YYE, including an Oxygene Syzygy(blue)
Latest acquisitions include a Chico YoYo Company Heavy Hitter 3 and a ReXtreme I got at a brick and mortar store 35 miles from me and holds YoLex meets. I also have an AL7 Nessie. Oh man, these Gsquard guys can do no wrong. This is just fantastic!! I’ve also chosen to get in on the Civility project. There are others but those are the highlights.
Happy Asian New Year. My wife has informed my my lucky colors are red and yellow. I’ll be needing to buy a red DM2 soon, and maybe a red Fiesta XX and red Go Big. I do have other red yoyos, as well as some yellow ones as well. Believe it or not, the DM2 is still my main go-to yoyo, despite all the expensive(and amazing) stuff I do have. So, look out YYE, there will be some orders of stuff that may not make normal sense if you’ve been tracking my purchases. Then again, I still enjoy playing inexpensive plastics as well as top-dollar metals. Fun is important, everything else is insignificant.
My Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/SacramentoYoYos/
It exploded with an influx of kendama people, most of whom are pretty good yoyo players, many better than I am. We organized a meet for February 2nd, which went pretty well. I’m trying to coordinate my events to not conflict with YoLex and the nearby comic book store that sells kendamas. Ultimately, it was fun. I got to play a Capless and I must say I MUST have one now. My collection also helped some people determine “gee, this is what I really like” so, I apologize for any returns/exchanges this may have caused. My bad. That’s why I share my collection. I spend the money so you don’t have to. Then you can try my stuff first and see if you like what you experience. Now you can make a qualified decision.
Other yoyo stuff:
I’m gathering stuff to enable this new project I am working on. Don’t ask, I won’t reveal what I’m doing. 2 other people know about this, and they ain’t talking! As I’ve said before, I’m done with unboxing videos for the time being. I’m not sure how many videos I have planned for this new series, but there’s at least a dozen planned. One will actually be an animation, but it will be minimally animated. However, I’m still purchasing additional items needed for this project, which is also stuff I want anyways. The odds are none of this will really be realized until after CalStates. I am doing image capture and collection here and there.
My current videos are here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5FAZwa4zmnv9B-N7XXnGsxFhtxlBawMP&feature=view_all
I do have other videos. One of my projects will be picking choice elements from concerts I’ve done for uploading to YouTube.
I’ve been taking photographs of my yoyo’s. I’m not sure if my photography skills are improving, but I think I’m liking the results. Rather than put them on my yoyo web site(because that would take effort), I’ve been dumping them on my Facebook album:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.225963747533739.55133.100003603459584&type=3
Let me know what YOU want to see from this page:
http://www.studio42,info/yoyo/collection/
Coming up with a trick. Really involves getting under the yoyo for me to make this happen. Someone better than me probably won’t have this issue. I’ve done it here and there before, usually by accident. At first, it was a “hmm, can I” and I did. Then it was a “let’s try doing this for reals” and it was very hit and miss. Now it’s coming together. I’m using it as a hopping repeater.
So, what are my pressing issues? Well, many are personal. I do not want to take a trip to Vietnam. The funds aren’t there an I don’t feel like renewing my passport. Honestly, everything I want to accomplish via that trip can be done via instant messages and a Paypal transaction in 15 minutes. In comparison, the plane trip itself will take over 18 hours not including the layover. That’s each way.
So, I’m mostly preparing for CalStates. Outside of that one video project I am wrapping up, everything else is wrapped around preparing for CalStates. I’m training crew this week to understand the dynamic nature, be prepared and have the right tools available to them. All have been working with me a while, so it’s just a matter of having more hands to rotate between locations so we don’t get bored and we can relieve each other. Running 2 rooms, I want a primary, a secondary at each room and then a floater. Odds are I’ll be running the finals all day, but I do need a break to hit vendors, buy yoyos and strings and accessories and say “hi” to people, both people who want to meet me and people I want to meet.
Lastly, those of you who have added me via Voxer, PLEASE send me a text message saying who you are. I’d really appreciate it.
A few thoughts:
Daniel Dietz leaving One Drop. Wasn’t expecting that. Best of luck in the move to Yomega
Zammy leaves One Drop. I saw that coming. Hints were being dropped. Kind of mixed about that, but I’ll keep that to myself. I’ll respect and accept his decision.
And the big one: We finally have resolve of sorts regarding Worlds, and in sufficient time to prevent things from getting ugly. While some things are heading in the right direction, the IYYF seems to be a shill organization in my opinion, and I feel there are bigger players “pulling the strings”, for lack of a better term. The site seems very much an afterthought and the documents provided as of the moment are rather weak. Operating out of Prague, the domain is registered in Japan, but it was registered back in 2003(august 20, 2003 at 23:08:41 UTC) if you want exact details. At the same time, things are moving in the right direction. They are smart to simply let things happen “as they have been” for this year, giving themselves a year and a half to get stuff running properly and organized effectively for 2014.
I will say this, the ball has started rolling, so we should see where it goes. However, now that this has started, it can’t be stopped. I don’t see this as a bad thing though. Let’s face it, this has been needed for quite some time. This is supposed to be a “Worlds” contest. It really hasn’t truly been a Worlds contest by being parked in Orlando. However, people are going to quickly realize that there’s more to running a contest than booking a venue. Security, sanitation, water and/or concessions/food services/craft services, production, organization, volunteers are just a few of many hundreds of details.
Having seen some of the other yoyo videos, especially things like Clash 44 videos, either see a stage with lighting and anywhere from marginal production to slightly elevated production, I fail t see what the big whoop is with some of the other contests. The last Clash 44 videos I could see it was held in a crappy club with a crappy stage with crappy lighting, so clearly, they weren’t aiming for the sky, but rather shooting at the knees. This is stuff that can be easily be done darn near anywhere, since it was clear that production wasn’t a top priority for that event. It’s hard to have the event taken seriously outside the community when it’s clear it’s not really taken seriously by the event organizers. Working in event production, I can’t even take it seriously. It would be better off being handled with minimal production but done in a less “dive-oriented” environment.
However, I’m not going to rant on about this topic. I just had a canister filter on my 160 gallon aquarium fail, and I need to either buy replacement parts or clean out an older filter and replace the carbon packets and wash out the mechanical filters as well as clean out the biological elements(bio balls and ceramic media). Seeing as how it’s almost 1AM, as you can guess, stores aren’t open for me to run out and get parts. Fortunately, it’s a lightly populated tank with very small fish, so I know I can get away with this for a couple of days. Besides, I have the other filter taking up the slack. What sucks is if I do have to have the other filter brought back after being cleaned, I have to re-establish the bacteria, so I better buy a booster solution to help speed it along.
(If you must know, it appears the impellor motor has failed, as well as the cover broke. All are service parts but Fluval discontinued the model. The other filter works fine but has been out of commission for a bit. I may end up having issue with the tubing but I’ll go deal with all those happy fun things later. I may just end up buying a whole new filter and move on).
Posted, locked and moved on!