New Job and Sicilian spinning tops

I'm halfway through my first week of work and so far things have gone pretty well. I checked in my first batch of code today and although it was a simple task it was nice to know I could get up and running so quickly.

Between quitting my old job and starting my new one I had two weeks off so I went down to San Diego to visit my family and friends. My mom and I watched Baaria, the film about my parent's hometown. Also, Communists. But not bad Communists, Italian ones.

This film has a memorable scene involving a traditional kind of over-sized top that you spin with a long string so it goes really fast. In Italian it's a "trottola". In Sicilian, "strummula". After the film my mom remembered that she had my strummula from when I was a kid so she fished it out for me.

I had to buy a new string for it since the original is lost but this afternoon I had a chance to attempt throwing it. I couldn't get the hang of it though and it kept landing off it's point and crashing. To be completely honest, I never really learned to throw it correctly even as a kid. You're supposed to hold it upside-down in your hand when you throw (see this video) but I always held it right-side up for which I was derided for holding it "girly-style"*.

Eventually I decided to give up on girly-style and try throwing it the traditional way. And what do you know, I got it to work! Now, all I have to do is relearn how to get it to spin on my hand.

*In Sicilian «comu 'na fimmina».