Man, the last week has been pretty busy for me. Last weekend, I spent most of Saturday playing in a Table Tennis Tournament, and part of Sunday morning. I entered three divisions, the U-1200, U-1300 and U-1400 (those stand for under 1200 and so on, and your ranking has to be below those to enter). I didn't really have my sights set on winning, but I was extremely surprised to wind up with two gold medals in the U-1300 and U-1400, and a silver in the U-1200. It was a really great time, and I feel like I'm advancing pretty quickly. My parents stopped by on Saturday to watch part of the tournament, and managed to get some of the U-1200 on video. My Dad was kind enough to put together a highlights reel with some music (thanks Dad!), so here is the video, in all its glory:

This last three days were crazy as well. On Friday, I saw Transformers 2, got my car serviced, got new tires, had a repairman out for my fridge, cleaned my house, and worked on some of my songs (phew!). Transformers 2 was better than I thought it was going to be. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although they went a little overboard with the slow-motion boobs-jiggling-as-she-runs shots. On Saturday, I headed up to Flagstaff and played in a really fun reverse coed grass 4's volleyball tournament. We had a really strong team, so we managed to get 1st, and I walked away with a 26 piece grill set. It was around 80F in Flagstaff, and extremely beautiful as usual. I wound up staying Saturday, and going to a barbecue with all of the players. There was tons of food, and we had a great fire blazing. We spent all night drinking, talking, and laughing. Sunday (today), I've just been recovering and trying to prepare for Wednesday, when I leave for L.A. for Anime Expo. Too much fun!

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.