Ok so every day I see more and more people say this, or write it and I think it’s kind of wrong.
“Yo-yoing, is a way of life.”
Let that sink in for a moment. This means that yo-yoing is your #1 priority over everything else in your life. That if you have a test you should be studying for the next day, but instead you have to yoyo because that is your life. Don’t make yo-yoing your life, that’s unhealthy. Find another hobby, read a book, go outside, do anything else just don’t make a toy a way of life for you.
I think it would be referring to the particular lifestyle that yoyoing has, not necessarily that it is literally the only thing that matters.
Yoyos affect your travel, influence your interests, introduce you to people, and maybe even provide inspiration for the way you dress. Without yoyoing, many of the choices you make in your life would have been much different than someone who thinks it is a “way of life”.
I made pro audio my life. All I do is play all day long behind a large mixing console doing sound for concerts. Sure, my toy cost me $60K and weighs 400 pounds in the case with the cabling and case lid on it, but for me, it’s like play. This used to involve being dragged or flown all over the country, staying in hotels and working with top-level talent. Seems like a lot of fun to me! The travel burned me out though so I’m kind of done with touring. I tend to stay near home. For me to fly cross-country for an event, that’s a major deal for me to even consider doing something like that anymore. However, I have one such event planned and it’s for the express benefit of providing help and expertise to the yoyo community.
I guess since I get paid for the pro audio work, I guess that makes it OK.
Even through my versions of “play”, as I do other things for money as well and most people would not consider those actual “play” and like with live sound, I also get paid for it, maybe we should consider a few things.
1: Most things are a type of discipline. Working with computers, circuits, networks and audio equipment, the discipline is understanding signal flow.
2: As a former musician, there was discipline in practice, rehearsals, warm-ups and of course performance. Attention to the director, focus and attention to details are necessary at all times in order to build what it takes to pull off the performance properly. It’s almost a military-type structure, as it’s critical to know your role in the bigger scheme of things. As many people have made “music a lifestyle”… well, I guess it comes down to money.
3: In some of the productions I work with currently, the cast lacks a lot of discipline. Lots of time is wasted because people just can shut up and calm down and stay focused and on task. Some of you will say “Oh, actors, whatever…”, but no, that’s not an excuse. Most of the movies and BIG productions I’ve worked on, if that kind of crap was going on, people would be getting terminated and there’d be a room full of people to replace them, eager for any available opening and 95% ready to just come in and get to work in that exact role(the other 5% comes from rehearsing it over the next hour as they discover and adjust to which role they are taking over). NEVER under-estimate the talents of an understudy.
There are many POSITIVE “lifestyle” elements to yoyo that can be applied to many things. What I’ve done is do that in reverse since I started to really take up the yoyo at a later age than many people here. So, at 39(now 40), I bring in some life experience to the equation.
First, a short story. My kids’ piano instructor has been noticing my improvements, mostly because that hour they have back to back lessons, I can get some time in to practice. Granted, I still “suck” even by my standards, but that’s a whole other issue. The instructor asked why do I do what I do, and I said that I am self-motivated and self-driven. My thoughts are that this drive and motivation and discipline MUST come from within one’s self. Unfortunately, a lot of kids don’t have these elements. The flip side is that these are things that can often be taught and instilled in people with positive and permanent results. But, with kids under 10, it’s often too much to expect those sort of internal mechanisms to be in place. One of my kids enjoys fighting everything, including piano lessons, yet she does enjoy them and is doing well.
What does it take to yoyo? I can’t speak for you, I can only speak for myself.
For me, I guess the yoyo is my midlife crisis. Some guys have affairs, some guys get expensive cars, some guys engage in extravagant behaviors. What do I choose? The yoyo. Man, I can’t do anything right, can I? But it goes back to being a child and seeing the yoyo on TV and wanting to do that, coupled with a huge failure with a Duncan Imperial back in 1978/79, during which I couldn’t sleep it or even gravity pull it since I was refused even basic assistance, such as: my parents refused to show me how to properly throw it, yet they could both sleep it and gravity pull it.
Anyhow, I chose to yoyo. It also turns out that this is hard for me. Sure, the sleeper and gravity pull took me a few days to get down, but after that, it’s been difficult. It seems for many of you, this stuff comes easy to you, but maybe it’s that thing about young minds and “sponge” and “easier to grasp concepts” stuff. I’m “old and set in my ways”. I bring to the table that internal self motivation and drive that keeps me going. I’ve been working on The Matrix since late October, and although I don’t have the trick down, I HAVE done it. If I omit the ferris wheel portion, I’m ALMOST smooth at it The Ferris wheel is the part I’m stuck with right now, and that’s what I’m working on. Slowly, it’s coming together.
So now we have to look at what it takes to yoyo. For me, I’m not making up my own stuff yet, it’s too early in the game for me because the skillset isn’t there yet. So, I’m sticking with existing tricks that are documented and have tutorial videos. Just to purposely limit choices, we’ll stick with the tricks in the tutorials here at YYE. We have a more traditional learning situation in a non-typical environment. The instructor is via a video so you don’t get that direct human connection and ability to have Q/A and being checked and corrected. At a simpler level, it’s “be shown how to do it, now you do it” and then you practice and practice and practice until you can get it. Hmm, that sounds a lot like school. Teachers show you something, and then you practice, and it often becomes homework to practice more. There’s even tests for school to ensure you know what you’ve been taught. Similarly, yoyo has tests in the way of contests or even in clubs where you can get together and work with each other and see how you’re doing.
The odds are if you’ve got things in balance, what you do in yoyo can be used in your other activities, and similarly, what you do in your other activities can be used in yoyo’ing.
Yoyo as a way of life? Sure, why not? I mean, you can take the positive values of practice, self-motivation and the discipline that is needed to learn how to yoyo and apply it to virtually anything, or most likely, you take those same values that you’ve learned(practice, self-motivation and discipline) in other things and apply it to the yoyo. You can use the yoyo to go places and meet people and to grow as a person, just as you can with education. Never underestimate the value of education! Through my work in audio, I’ve met and worked with so many A-list talent that I’ve lost track. Through my work in data comm and computers, I’ve met so many top engineers and executives and major companies that again, I can’t keep track, but that’s more trivial because many of these people have moved onto other things, been fired, replaced, died or otherwise are “not where I met them in the first place”, yet sometimes they’ll ring my phone to see if I might be interested in a position within their organization.
In the case of my life, yoyo is a welcome addition to my life. Despite the frustration of it taking forever for me to get tricks down, it’s STILL fun. I have other issues. I can’t do any music creation because, well, my gear takes up too much space. Mixer, computers, 4-keyboard rig with a rack full of synths, electronic drum kit with a rack full of brains and sound modules, bass and amp, guitar and amp(both amps are small), it takes up space I don’t have. I am losing ideas. I’m not saying my ideas are gonna be the next super hit, but I’d still like to explore the ideas and see if there’s anything worth filling out. So, my creativity is being used by learning the yoyo. I’m feeling myself being less forgetful, better focussed again(since I otherwise don’t work daily, my work comes either on the weekends or via the phone at random intervals). It gives me something constructive to do during “down time”.
Thanks to the yoyo keeping me sharp, I’ve been building cables for a client. Normally, I’d be making a couple of errors, but so far, no errors.
Yoyo, at least until I am too old to do sound and the other stuff I do(data com and computer stuff I can do until I die, audio I will have to eventually give up due to my back problems, or at least stop humping gear myself), cannot and will not be a “lifestyle” for me, and certainly not a way of life. It will just be another element that I’ve integrated into my life. However, I do get jerked around from thing to thing in my daily life as if I’m a yoyo on a string.
However, if one is making a living at the yoyo, then why not make yoyo a way of life? Why not get paid to do something you enjoy doing? This is even better when you’re good at it too!
Also, similarly, there’s “grown men” making skateboards their life. Or snowboarding. Or BMX. Or other “kids activities”, but we call those “X-Games”, put it on network TV during optimal viewing hours and it draws crowds like a moth to flames. Yoyo barely draws a footnote in a regional newspaper when a contest hits the city!
It’s best to take the elements needed to yoyo and apply those to things in your life. These elements needed to learn to yoyo should actually have come from something else in your life. Regardless, it doesn’t matter how you got the discipline, drive and practice skills, as long as you have them. These are good life skills that can be applied to almost anything.
But, if you want to question some people about yoyo being a way of life, I think Steven Brown might have a few words on that topic. It appears he’s made yoyo a way of life and seems to be doing pretty good for himself with that. Hey, do what you love, the money will follow! That takes a lot of self discipline, practice and dedication. Oh wait, haven’t I covered those elements before? Hmm, must be some validity to it.
^ That must be the longest post I’ve ever seen in my life. And I have accounts on about 4 different forums. :o
Anyway, I don’t think if you say its a way of life that they mean that is all they do. It might mean it has a great effect on their life.
Other than God ,family ,and friends,yoyoing and juggling are very important to me in my life ,and I think anybody can yoyo as much as they want as long as they’re happy and it doesn’t cause too many problems between your family ,friends ,and health.
I have too much first hand witnessing of wasted lives.
Typically, it’s people deciding that getting high is more important than anything else and not giving a crap about who they have to hurt to get that fix.
But that’s just one of many examples.
But that’s way off topic.
One of the things I think Andre(the guy who runs this place) believes in is that the yoyo is not just a toy, but a tool with endless possibilities only limited by whatever restrictions you place upon it.
For me, the yoyo is a device that helps me relieve stress, regain focus and better use time that would be wasted doing something that isn’t going to do anything useful for me or others. Then again, having some “veg time” is nice too, but I can’t just sit on the couch all day watching the TV. I’m also using the yoyo to help get me into new markets for live sound EVEN if the money is might not be inline with what I should be getting.
I’d much rather play yoyo than video games these days, but you’d have to read about my anti-batteries in toys postings to understand that. I feel I’m improving myself by playing with the yoyo. All I get from video games is sore fingers and hands. I get that with the yoyo too, but I don’t get cramping!
Well, either you’re closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a pool table in your community. Ya got trouble, my friend, right here, I say, trouble right here in River City. Why sure I’m a billiard player, certainly mighty proud I say I’m always mighty proud to say it. I consider that the hours I spend with a cue in my hand are golden. Help you cultivate horse sense and a cool head and a keen eye. Never take and try to give an iron-clad leave to yourself from a three-rail billiard shot? But just as I say, it takes judgement, brains, and maturity to score in a balkline game, I say that any boob can take and shove a ball in a pocket. And they call that sloth. The first big step on the road to the depths of deg-ra-day—I say, first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon, then beer from a bottle. An’ the next thing ya know, your son is playin’ for money in a pinch-back suit. And list’nin to some big out-a-town Jasper hearin’ him tell about horse-race gamblin’. Not a wholesome trottin’ race, no! But a race where they set down right on the horse! Like to see some stuck-up jockey boy sittin’ on Dan Patch? Make your blood boil? Well, I should say. Friends, lemme tell you what I mean. Ya got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table. Pockets that mark the difference between a gentlemen and a bum, with a capital “B” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for pool! And all week long your River City youth’ll be fritterin’ away, I say your young men’ll be fritterin’! Fritterin’ away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too! Get the ball in the pocket, never mind gittin’ dandelions pulled or the screen door patched or the beefsteak pounded. Never mind pumpin’ any water ‘til your parents are caught with the cistern empty on a Saturday night and that’s trouble, oh, yes we got lots and lots a’ trouble. I’m thinkin’ of the kids in the knickerbockers, shirt-tail young ones, peekin’ in the pool hall window after school, look, folks! Right here in River City. Trouble with a capital “T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for pool! Now, I know all you folks are the right kinda parents. I’m gonna be perfectly frank. Would ya like to know what kinda conversation goes on while they’re loafin’ around that Hall? They’re tryin’ out Bevo, tryin’ out Cubebs, tryin’ out Tailor Mades like Cigarette Fiends! And braggin’ all about how they’re gonna cover up a tell-tale breath with Sen-Sen. One fine night, they leave the pool hall, headin’ for the dance at the Armory! Libertine men and Scarlet women! And Rag-time, shameless music that’ll grab your son and your daughter with the arms of a jungle animal instint! Mass-steria! Friends, the idle brain is the devil’s playground!
Mothers of River City! Heed the warning before it’s too late! Watch for the tell-tale sign of corruption! The moment your son leaves the house, does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee? Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger? A dime novel hidden in the corn crib? Is he starting to memorize jokes from Capt. Billy’s Whiz Bang? Are certain words creeping into his conversation? Words like “swell” And “so’s your old man”? Well, if so my friends, ya got trouble, right here in River city! With a capital “T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for Pool. We’ve surely got trouble! Right here in River City! Remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock and the Golden Rule! Oh, we’ve got trouble. We’re in terrible, terrible trouble. That game with the fifteen numbered balls is a devil’s tool! Oh yes we got trouble, trouble, trouble! With a “T”! Gotta rhyme it with “P”! And that stands for Pool!!!
Yep, the grammar and punctuation police have to agree with this. Get the comma out of there and you’ve got yourself a sentence. With the comma, you’ve got two fragments, and that’s definitely plain wrong!
