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From: Invisible
Subject: Diabolo
Date: 12 Jan 2011 09:07:26
Message: <4d2db59e$1@news.povray.org>
I don't know if I mentioned this already, but... among the shirts and 
DVDs I got for Christmas, my little sister bought me a diabolo.

In fact, she bought two:

http://www.oddballs.co.uk/radiant-diabolo-p-3059.html

(The orange/yellow one.)

http://www.oddballs.co.uk/juggle-dream-lunarspin-diabolo-with-light-kit-p-3323.html

(No, it actually looks nothing like that in real life. The LEDs aren't 
nearly that bright.)

The idea being that the illuminated diabolo looks fantastic, but you 
probably don't want to drop it too many times. So the plain one is for 
practise, and the pretty one is for show. (So far, my mother hasn't 
actually let me use it at all.)

I also got a pair of very basic wooden block handsticks with yellow 
string. (Well, it *was* yellow... now it's a sort of dirty black colour.)

Oh, and an instruction DVD. It's better than diabolotricks.co.uk, but 
it's not absolutely fantastic.



Thus far, I'm not doing too badly. I don't have "mad skillz" yet, but I 
can just about manage a few basic tricks. (Most of the time...)


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From: Stephen
Subject: Re: Diabolo
Date: 12 Jan 2011 09:10:00
Message: <4d2db638$1@news.povray.org>
On 12/01/2011 2:07 PM, Invisible wrote:
> (So far, my mother hasn't actually let me use it at all.)

What?

-- 
Regards
     Stephen


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From: Invisible
Subject: Re: Diabolo
Date: 12 Jan 2011 09:17:06
Message: <4d2db7e2@news.povray.org>
On 12/01/2011 02:09 PM, Stephen wrote:
> On 12/01/2011 2:07 PM, Invisible wrote:
>> (So far, my mother hasn't actually let me use it at all.)
>
> What?

Well, if I *used* it, I might break it, right? And that would be a 
catastrophe. Obviously.

*sigh*


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From: Stephen
Subject: Re: Diabolo
Date: 12 Jan 2011 09:48:17
Message: <4d2dbf31$1@news.povray.org>
On 12/01/2011 2:17 PM, Invisible wrote:
> On 12/01/2011 02:09 PM, Stephen wrote:
>> On 12/01/2011 2:07 PM, Invisible wrote:
>>> (So far, my mother hasn't actually let me use it at all.)
>>
>> What?
>
> Well, if I *used* it, I might break it, right? And that would be a
> catastrophe. Obviously.
>
> *sigh*

A man or a mouse?

Squeak! Squeak! :-P


-- 
Regards
     Stephen


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From: Invisible
Subject: Re: Diabolo
Date: 12 Jan 2011 10:01:44
Message: <4d2dc258$1@news.povray.org>
On 12/01/2011 02:48 PM, Stephen wrote:

> A man or a mouse?
>
> Squeak! Squeak! :-P

Oh, I *have* used it. I just don't tell me mum that. :-P


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From: Invisible
Subject: 51
Date: 13 Jan 2011 08:36:20
Message: <4d2effd4$1@news.povray.org>
I've been practising "open orbits". That's basically where you make the 
diabolo travel in a circle, by rolling it along the length of the 
string, throwing it from one end, and catching it on the other (and then 
rolling it along the string back to the first end again).

The only actually difficult part of all this is the catching. Assuming 
that you actually catch the damned thing, it's obviously pretty easy to 
roll it along the string and then throw it (although throwing it in the 
right general direction is mildly tricky).

A practised for an hour or two at the weekend. Generally I either miss 
the first or second catch completely, or I manage about 6 catches and 
then drop it. I kept a tally, and my personal best was 7 catches. On one 
fluke occasion I reached 9, and eventually even 10.

On Monday I had a go in my lunch break, and managed to reach 11, 12 and 
eventually even 14. And on one particularly fluky run, I hit 16.

I didn't practise at all yesterday, but I had a go just now. After 
several 4s and 5s, I somehow managed to pull off 51 consecutive catches, 
utterly /annihilating/ my previous personal best of 16. That's over 3x 
better performance!

Astonished, I of course immediately tried again, and scored 33 
consecutive catches. Nowhere near as impressive as 51, but still more 
than double my previous best.

Since then, I haven't managed to get near 50 again, but I have managed 
several teens and a few twenties. For whatever reason, I seem to have 
suddenly made a quantum leap in my skills. O_O


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From: Le Forgeron
Subject: Re: 51
Date: 13 Jan 2011 08:41:57
Message: <4d2f0125$1@news.povray.org>
Le 13/01/2011 14:36, Invisible a écrit :
> For whatever reason, I seem to have suddenly made a quantum leap in my
> skills.

You are now expecting a high count... that's more pressure on you, and
therefore you fail.


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From: Invisible
Subject: Re: 51
Date: 13 Jan 2011 08:52:15
Message: <4d2f038f@news.povray.org>
On 13/01/2011 01:36 PM, Invisible wrote:
> I've been practising "open orbits". That's basically where you make the
> diabolo travel in a circle, by rolling it along the length of the
> string, throwing it from one end, and catching it on the other (and then
> rolling it along the string back to the first end again).

http://www.diabolotricks.co.uk/trick/orbits.html


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From: Invisible
Subject: Re: 51
Date: 13 Jan 2011 08:54:23
Message: <4d2f040f$1@news.povray.org>
On 13/01/2011 01:41 PM, Le_Forgeron wrote:
> Le 13/01/2011 14:36, Invisible a écrit :
>> For whatever reason, I seem to have suddenly made a quantum leap in my
>> skills.
>
> You are now expecting a high count... that's more pressure on you, and
> therefore you fail.

If I had just made one run of 51 catches, and then gone back to being 
able to only do 2 or 3, that would be very fluky, but not too 
surprising. However, I now suddenly seem to be able to regularly exceed 
10 or sometimes even 20 catches. I have no idea why I can suddenly do 
that - but I like it!

Need to figure out how the hell to correct for tilt though. (Something 
that none of the tutorial videos or websites ever talk about. Actually, 
most learning resources are fairly minimal...)


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From: Invisible
Subject: Re: 51
Date: 13 Jan 2011 09:27:25
Message: <4d2f0bcd@news.povray.org>
On 13/01/2011 01:36 PM, Invisible wrote:

> The only actually difficult part of all this is the catching.

Suppose the probability of a catch is unconditionally P. How does the 
length of a typical series of consecutive catches vary as a function of P?


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