Introduction

Refreshes, in Life and in Spinners

In our lifetimes, we meet many decent people. There will be those who we get along with, those we tolerate, and those select few who become friends (and I mean real friends, not just acquaintances). I’m an introvert, so I probably can’t just assume that everyone’s experience is similar to mine, even generally speaking, but I do believe that most people are careful about who they let into their circle. In order to make friends and develop good relationships, you have to put yourself out there, and to do that you have to be yourself. It requires a vulnerability that not everyone is comfortable with, especially those of us who are more concerned with what others think of us. With spinners, you sort of have to throw that out the window, unless you only spin them at home. It’s something that I’ve struggled with, the judgy eyes and scowling at the idea of an adult playing with what most perceive as a child’s toy. But why do I care? I shouldn’t, and that’s what I’ve come to realize and accept as a mindset that I need to change. A true friend is one with whom you can be yourself with, without fear of being judged and scrutinized for your hobbies, your quirks, your mannerisms, etc. They accept you for who you are, and that’s why they choose to be your friend.

There are few people who I would consider to be in this category, and for each of them it’s taken years to get to that point (it’s a very slow process). For me, these are people that I can just talk to about anything and everything, and even in some cases they become a part of my identity, or at least their mannerisms do. Online friendships are a bit different, mostly because we usually rely solely on the words they’re typing out to us, and lose out on the tone and non-verbal cues that they may be giving off. That’s what makes digital interactions difficult (texting is a great example, and the Key and Peele sketch does a great job at illustrating what can go wrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naleynXS7yo). If you open yourself up though, you can really have some great conversations with people, some that an individual might be too shy/reluctant to have in-person. One such friend I’ve had in the spinner community is Jim, a friendly Canadian fellow who is very nice (of course, he’s Canadian), but very honest and genuine. I don’t get the chance to talk to friends I meet over the internet on the phone, so I was probably a bit awkward (of course, me being me), but I was surprised by how natural talking to him was. He’s a good dude. One of my favorite members of the spinfam, for sure.

Recently I’ve been talking a bit more with none other than the great Idlespin himself. He’s the kind of person that you start talking to and after a bit of back and forth you realize that you feel like you’ve been friends for ages, skipping a few barriers like you might after a few ales (as he would say). It’s quite rare, and maybe this is just a quality some people have, but it’s just awesome when it happens whatever the case may be. I’m sure there are others who feel the same way about him, as another great friend with whom we can just have a chat with. It’s possible that he just has that effect on people, but I really value and respect what he has to say, and I’d like to believe that we’re good friends. Whether it be a critical and self-reflecting review he’s doing on a spinner, or he’s having a go at naming a spinner after a male appendage, he is uniquely himself. I deeply respect him for that. Over the past week or so I’ve seen how consistently “Idle” he’s been over the past 2 years with each of his posts. Each of them oozes personality and character, and perhaps he’s a bit more palatable now for some than he was before, but overall his character has been constant, one can only appreciate his dedication. His photography is captivating, and we can almost expect at least one in every post that he makes, and his commentary to accompany them is the perfect pairing.

Oh, I need to tie this into the theme somehow, right… True friendship. It’s something that has the ability to change our perspective/outlook on life, one that can breathe new life into things. One such thing for me is having it ignite my strong passion for the hobby in a way that I didn’t realize was possible. Going through and re-posting all of his write-ups on the website has reminded me that there is still an opportunity to reinvigorate this hobby. Knowing that there is a person in this community who has been doing what I’ve strived to do over the past few months for the last few years has sparked something in me. His works deserved to be appreciated in a way that neither Reddit nor Facebook could quite capture. I’ve started from the beginning to read through each and every post that he’s made over the past 2 years, and I’m excited to continue reading. Obsessive? Maybe, but I believe that I can learn a thing or two from his wisdom. It’s a shame that I didn’t seize the opportunity before to read through it all, but it’s better late than never, right? I have a lot of spinner reading material to get through, in addition to some new additions as of late, and that’s very exciting to me.

These spinners do for their associated brands what has been done for my passion for the hobby by the great Idlespin. They seemed to breathe new life into the brands, by giving it a new image, something new to get excited about. All 3 of them came out of nowhere too, a welcome surprise to a community where new spinner designs seemed to be slowing down a bit (no longer the case anymore). I will talk about each of them in detail, and how they breathed new life into the brand, considering the previous designs that were offered. Some were a bit more adventurous than others, but that’s not the point of this write-up. It feels a bit awkward not to have “reviewed” said designs in an earlier write-up, but we’ll just have to make do.