Look what I got!:

I played in several Tennis Table divisions this weekend( U1000, U1200, and U1300). It was a great experience, and there were a lot of really nice people to meet/play against. On Saturday, at 9:00 AM, I played in the U1200. I started off the day by winning most of my matches, until I went up against a really nice fellow named John. I really struggled when I played him, and he took me out in 3 games. When we finished the round robin, I wound up getting 2nd place, and in that division, they were taking the top two people from each pool, so I was able to advance. My semi-final match was against a guy named Ryan who used either short or long pips( I can't remember ). Either way, it was my first time playing against someone who used pips, and it has a really weird effect on the ball. Instead of top spin bouncing off of the paddle and rising back with top spin, the ball instead turns all of your top spin into back spin and sends it back at you. This effectively makes it unwise to attack furiously unless you can finish the point. I didn't know this at the time, so I kept hitting the ball with a lot of top spin, and I paid the price. I lost in 5 games and was done. That meant I tied for 3rd/4th. In the U1300, I won all of my matches except for one - I had to play John again. Once again, I couldn't pick my game up enough to beat him. I did beat a 1200+ ranked player though, so that should really help my rating. I wound up placing 2nd in my pool, and that was not good enough to advance this time( only the top 1 of each pool got to advance, and there were 3 pools ). If not for John, I most likely would have gotten medals in both events, but I can't hold it against him because he was a great opponent, and an extremely nice guy. Looks like I'll have to train up so John and I can have some better matches in the future

Today, Sunday, I played in the Under 1000 division. I managed to beat all of my opponents except for one. One guy named Carlos was unranked, so I didn't know what to expect. We had a great match that went to 5 games, and I lost 11-9 in the last game( so close! ). Later, I found out that he had also played in the Under 1400, and didn't lose to anyone. I didn't feel so bad after that. Losing to him didn't affect my chances of winning though, as unranked players can't win events( to make it fair ). I also played an amazing match against a kid named Wajih. He and I went back and forth, crushing ball after ball. We went to deuce almost every game. Our first game was 19-17, our second game 15-13. It was insane. Wajih has obviously had some training, as his form is very good. One really memorable play started with the two of us crushing balls back and forth at each other, and then Wajih hit a that bounced and went off of the right side of the table. I was forced to dive and hit the ball about 10 feet in the air back to his side. He then crushed this ball again at me, but I hit it back and he was unable to return it. After this crazy play, people were actually clapping all over the gym. That made me feel really good, to say the least. In the end, I was able to beat Wajih in the 5th game, 11-6. He is definitely going to keep getting better though, so I'm going to need to watch myself in upcoming tournaments!

So with my 2nd tournament done, I at least have something to show for it. I'm going to keep playing and hopefully I can walk away with an U-1200 medal in the May or June tournament!

On a different topic, if anyone is looking for a good martial arts film, I rented "The Rebel", and it really impressed me. The fight scenes were choreographed extremely well, and the story wasn't horrible. It's not mind-blowing, but it's extremely entertaining as far as martial arts centered films go. Up next is Role Models. I've only watched 25 minutes, but I've already been cracking up and I can tell it's going to be hilarious.

Well that's all! Hopefully in the next week I can finish up some music stuff, as I keep telling people about my site, but I haven't been able to put up any more songs. I also have a volleyball doubles tournament coming up on the 4th, so I will report on that.

Life can be pretty hectic sometimes. I've definitely been filling my days to the brink. For example, this last weekend I cleaned my house for a gathering of friends to watch the U of A basketball team on Friday( Go cats! ), did a two and a half hour mountain bike ride with Tom( more on this later ), sprayed my weeds, trimmed my trees( after buying shears ), studied Japanese vigorously, prepared my house for my sister and brother-in-law staying here, went to olive garden with them, watched a movie, drove to Tucson, did a 50 mile bike ride with my dad to Biosphere, got a haircut, and came back. Phew! Let me cover some of the things that have happened, as well as covering some of the things from this weekend in more detail:

- Played in a sand volleyball tournament and had a great time. I originally was going to play with Adam Welch, who is an awesome partner, but he was unable to start his car. I showed up to the tournament unsure if he was going to be able to make it, and wound up playing with a guy nick-named Shaggy. I didn't know what to think based on the name, but he was a well known player and is very good. We had a great time playing together and will probably play again in the future. As for placement, I think we were somewhere in the middle( 13th? 11th? I'll have to check the website ).

- Wrote a new song called Can't Be Wrong. It's a really catchy song and I'm excited about recording it. If only I could find more time for music!

- Went on the previously mentioned two and a half hour mountain bike ride with Tom. The two of us ventured into Estrella Mountain National Park, paid the entrance fee, and proceeded to the rodeo grounds. The guy at the entrance, upon seeing that we were serious riders, told us about the competitive track. We acknowledged this, but the competitive track was a ways away, so we decided to chance whatever tracks were around the Rodeo grounds. We started off the ride, and it was fairly flat and uninteresting. The suddenly there were extremely rocky descents that turned quickly. This was followed by extremely steep uphills with loose/sand rock. Needless to say, Tom and I didn't manage to get up a single one of these downhill/uphill pairs all day. They were just too insane. In fact, we had to walk down some of the hills as they were just plain dangerous. These were obviously horse trails. At one point, there was a branch off to a different trail, and I suggested we try it for fun. It wound up being the wost decision of the day. The trail eventually led to a wash. We had to get off our bikes and walk them as the sand was extremely deep, and it was impossible to ride through. Little did we know that there were several MILES of wash that we had to walk through. All the while, we were baking and there were flies galore from the horse manure. The ride turned horrible at this point, and we were lucky to find a hiker who lent us a map. We planned our route home, but it involved plenty more hiking through the wash. Even when we finally got back to a trail that we could ride on, it was littered with loose sand and huge packs of rocks. The riding was very, very difficult and tiring. We eventually got back to the cars, but we were definitely tired. I looked at the day as endurance training. I managed to only get burned a little during this, but this was nothing compared to today...

- I rode 50 miles with my dad in Tucson today. It was a great ride, but the winds turned VICIOUS on the way back. Even going downhill, the winds were so bad that we had to work extremely hard to maintain decent speeds. I was also very tired my mountain bike ride with Tom the day before, so my legs got very weak, very fast. My dad had to constantly slow down for me, which really bummed me out as I couldn't show him that I've actually gotten much stronger. After almost 3 hours of riding, we stopped at starbucks to get some drinks, and a crazy situation ensued. We sat at a table, and my dad had his bottle and helmet on the table. Suddenly a gust of wind flipped the helmet and half full bottle off the table. We were seriously surprised by this, and no sooner had we recovered the items, that gust of wind came at us so hard that it knocked my dad's bike over( thank goodness it wasn't hurt ). I immediately rushed over to my bike to prevent a similar occurrence. Right at that moment, a gust of wind blew so hard that it flung the umbrella covering the table into the street. The crazy part is that the umbrella was held down by a metal base that had to have weighed around 60 pounds. The umbrella and base barely missed hitting a car. The starbuck's employees rushed out, amazed at what just happened. I'm just glad my dad and I weren't sitting on the other side of the table... Other than being exhausted when we got back, I found out that I had gotten burnt pretty badly. My face, legs, and arms are now red all over. I hadn't planned for a 3 hour ride, but I won't make this mistake again.

- Resident Evil 5 came out. This game has co-op and it is so much fun to play with a friend. John( my neighbor) and I have been playing it whenever we get a chance, and it's been a ball.

So as you can see, some fun stuff has happened. The next few weeks and weekends will be full as well( table tennis tournament, volleyball tournament in Colorado, indoor volleyball tournament, etc ). Wish me luck!