Man, it feels like it's been forever since I've updated this site. I just got done working a 66 hour work week, and I have to say, I didn't really enjoy it. Getting home so late that I have little time for anything except eating and maybe a light workout sucks. Having said that, when I receive the overtime pay, I'm definitely not going to be complaining

Other than work keeping me extremely busy, I've been continuing my quest for ping pong greatness. I traveled all the way to Green Valley and picked up a great ping pong table and robot for $750. Now, you may look at that number and go, WOAH, what is he thinking?! Let me explain a couple of things. First, the table is normally $1000 alone, and the robot is around $700. I got both for under half the combined price. Granted, the table isn't new, and it's been used a fair amount, but it's still in superb condition. The top is nearly perfect, which is the most important part. It's missing a couple of features that the new ones have, but those matter very little while you are playing. The robot is in "like-new" condition, so I lost nothing there. The table that I got is called the Expert Roller, and it's the same table that is used in the U.S. Open, so it's the real deal As for the robot, you may ask, what is a robot? Well I'll tell you! It's something that you set up on one side of the table, and it has a netting that extends all around that side of the table. It also has plastic that funnels the balls that hit the net and fall, so that the balls continually recycle( unless you hit them off the table ). In the middle sits a cool device that sucks up balls, and then shoots them out of a rotatable head. The head can be twisted to put any kind of spin, and the angle can be adjusted so you can work on serves and hits of any variation. Unlike some of the more expensive robots( 2 grand ), this robot can't add speed without spin, but it's a small price to pay for the performance vs price. The robot can actually put so much spin on the ball that it's nearly impossible to return it. It can also hit it so fast that you have to dodge not to get hit with the ball off the bounce. I should mention that a little device sits on your side of the table, hanging off the side, and it lets you rotate knobs to adjust speed, oscillation, and frequency. The oscillation is important because it ensures that the robot will keep turning back and forth, working both forehand and backhand, and forcing you to be prepared for either. This is adjustable though, in cause you only want to fire in one specific area. So the first time i was testing the robot and table out, I had a ball. I was hitting balls and just thoroughly enjoying being able to practice so much in a relaxed situation. Then I thought, "I wonder how fast this thing will fire. I'm gonna turn the speed all the way up!" The robot then proceeded to turn towards me, and fire off a ball that hit the table and bounced, nailing me directly in the stomach. I hardly had time to react, and immediately feared the next incoming shot. Needless to say, I dove for the off button as I heard balls slamming into the closed garage door, sounding like shots going off all around me. I hit the switch after hearing a few more rattle off, and then checked my stomach to see the damage. I had a beautiful welt from the ball, which taught me an important lesson - don't test the max out without being prepared for the consequences.

So practicing with the robot has definitely helped my game. I've been playing at work, and the last few days have been really great, despite not getting much practice time in this week. It's all about muscle memory. It also doesn't hurt that I really learned a lot about how you need to hit the ball to create a lot of spin. Understanding the game at the level helps with every aspect. I also practiced crazy serves over and over, which helped me somewhat. I still managed to screw up the serves when I tried them in a game, but I will keep working at it! I can already get a ball to go over the net with backspin, and then roll back to the net.

Other than ping pong, I'm doing my usual stuff - watching anime, playing volleyball, doing music as much as I can, and working out. I'm also going to get a road bike, as a late night adventure I had on my mountain bike really made me want to get into riding again. Maybe I'll finally get motivated enough to start doing mountain biking on my own... If only I could find some more time... Hell, if I had time, I think the number thing I would do is make my music CD! I played through all of my songs the other night, and was so excited about creating a cd of my favorites. I want to make something I can be really proud of.

The last thing I should mention is Left 4 Dead. This game is amazing. We have all of the guys from work playing, and it's a kind of game everyone can get into. Who doesn't love zombie games? This game allows people to play together co-operatively as humans vs zombies, or as zombies vs humans. This allows for 4 people playing against the computer, or 4 people vs 4 other people. The games are intense, and so much fun, that we wind up talking about it all the time. I can't wait to see how this game evolves. If they put out an SDK, I will create a campaign involving the area around my work. It will be the best thing ever!

Anyways, I'm off to make dinner. Then more Left 4 Dead!

Wow, am I beat. You wouldn't think ping pong would be that much of a workout, but once you start taking it seriously, you do a LOT of running around and you have to swing hard repeatedly. I'm gonna have to start calling it Table Tennis now

As for the tournament, it was a great learning experience. They had a gym set up with about 12-14 tables, and three different divisions - beginners, intermediate, and advanced. There was nothing beginners about the beginners bracket though - there were at least like 5 people that should have been intermediate. I love competition though, so I started off the day playing a guy who was so-so. I trounced on him 11-2, 11-1, 11-2 ( best out of 5 games ). I wasn't very nice, but I needed to practice for the big games The sucky thing about my pool of 5 was that 2 of the best (if not the best) players in the beginners pool (there were 20 players in in total), were stuck with me. Only 2 people advanced past the beginning round robin though, meaning the only way I could play for a trophy was to beat at least one of the two really good people. Well my second match was against a guy named Rex from Intel who surprised the hell out of me. I started hitting really hard, and he would just rally back and forth with me. I managed to win the first game, but the second game was a heartbreak. I was up 9-8, and let him win 11-9. I then proceeded to lose games 3 and 4. That meant I had to beat some guy who was decent, and Ophelia to advance... I played the next guy after sitting for two matches, and although it was a fun match up (he was great at pulling out these hitting rallies with me), I managed to get the best of him. That meant I was 2-1. All I had to do was beat Ophelia...

Ophelia is an older women (she looked 40-50, but in reality she is 60), but she was no slouch. She's had coaching, and she bought a robot (a machine that fires balls at you for practice with whatever spin you want it to). She actually won the beginner's tournament last year. Well I knew I had to take her seriously, so right off the bat, I hit really hard at her. I managed to shake her up and take game 1. We then switched games back and forth - she won game 2, but I took control and won game 3. She then came back and crushed me in 4. It all came down to game 5. I was hopeful, but a little shakey for some reason (I got sick two days before the tournament - it just figures). She immediately took advantage of me sucking, and went up like 5-0. After that, I couldn't come back. I learned a lot from the tournament though, and considering I've only been taking table tennis seriously for like 2 months, I'd say I've come a long way. I'll have to get a video some time so people actually know what I mean Before I left the gym, I played my boss in a game. It's always weird playing your boss, because even though it's outside work, it feels weird to beat someone that has influence on your career. Needless to say, I did beat him... I wonder what other people would do in that situation. It would be a fun survey to see who sucks up and who doesn't care

In other news, my house is great, my job is busy, and with playing ping pong every day at work, volleyball, and random other stuff (I'm gonna start playing tennis with my friend from work, and I'm learning Japanese), I really haven't had time for much else. I watch movies here and there, and an occasional show, but I haven't been able to record music hardly at all. That really bums me out...

You might have been like, wait, what? You are learning Japanese? Yes, that's right! Hai! I'm going to Japan next summer with a few friends from work, so I'm going to learn as much of the language as I can before then. I'm really studying hard, and advancing pretty quickly. I can say things like, otearai wa doko desu ka? (Where is the bathroom?) watashi wa tabemasu ( I will eat ), etc, etc. I'm also learning to read and write, which is WAY more difficult than just speaking. I haven't even tried Kanji yet, and Hiragana has like 46 symbols, and Katakana has another 46. Kanji has thousands. Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me to even get the basics down for reading/writing.

Tomorrow I get to see my parents, and play tennis with my Dad. Should be loads of fun. Plus I get to see a Jason Mraz concert in the evening. He is my favorite artist by far. I can't wait!

Lately I've been playing a lot of ping pong. I have to say, I'm loving it. I used to play a lot during college, but I wasn't exposed to a diverse group of playing styles. I mainly played against my roommate Chris, which was a blast, but I stopped getting better at a certain point. Well I'm playing every day at work for an hour against some of the best ping pong players I've played against. They've been kicking my butt for weeks (we usually play doubles, so I at least got some help), but I've been getting better and better. I get a lot of helpful hints, but most of what I've learned comes from watching them. It is so much fun to play against people better than yourself, as you constantly grow in order to be competitive. I'm at the point now where we have really close games, and I'm hoping soon to be able to beat them consistently.

As part of this new ping pong craze, I'm entering a ping pong tournament in November that is between all of the tech companies (Intel, Honeywell, Lockheed, etc ). I'm playing in the beginner's bracket, but almost everyone who goes has experience, and a great deal play competitively in clubs and competitions, so the beginner's bracket is full of very skilled players (so I hear from the guys who go to it every year). I'm hoping to keep getting better so that I will be ready for the tournament. I really hope I do well...

Outside of playing, I also watched the movie Ping Pong, which is subtitled, but very entertaining. It actually had some really great ping pong matches that were very realistic. I actually learned a few things from watching the movie. I've also gone back and watched the olympic matches at nbcolympics.com. If you are feeling bored, check out some of the ping pong matches. They are INSANE.

In other news, I've been watching a lot of House lately. I got my neighbor John hooked, so we watch it all the time now. It's one hell of a show. I can't get enough of it. I've got John working out with me now in the Zubersoft gym, so watching House while we lift weights is a great excuse to keep him going on the workout plan If I ever get some free time (maybe this weekend I hope), I really want to get some stuff done with my music. Fix my old songs, start recording new ones etc. There is just too much I want to do... what's new though right?

After listening back to the song I put up, I definitely think it was too early to put it up. A case of the "Oh, this seems good enough" which easily happens after a long session. Some of the best mixers say they will only work 3 hours on a single song before switching, because it messes up your perspective. Perhaps I should learn from that... Song needs a lot of work, and I completely forgot to pan the instruments (rookie mistake). I think I might change up some of the instruments and I'm definitely going to add some more. The chorus needs a little more build up and something to fill it out more. In addition, I think the whole song could use some percussion with a beat (I'm not going for full drums though). Needless to say, if people like it at all now, hopefully it will be way better with the next iteration.

Now, it's time for some moovays.

Ahh, another fun weekend. On Saturday, I had a couple of friends over and we had a House marathon (it's a really entertaining show), and a few episodes of another show called Soul Eater. We also lifted weights and ordered pizza - the perfect combo of healthy exercise and artery clogging goodness. Sunday was a much busier day. I spent the day patching a hole in the wall behind my TV, and finishing the recording/arranging of a song I started months ago. Now you might be thinking, a hole in the wall behind his TV? What in the world happened there? Let me tell you...

So when my parents came out the 2nd time to help me finish getting my house ready, my dad noticed that my entertainment center was a little off. My entertainment is made up of about 5 pieces - there are the two sides, the base for the tv, the top piece that rests on the two sides over the tv, and a little shelf you can put above the tv to hold either decorations or a speaker (as is the case with me). He was having trouble repositioning it, so I went in to help. Now, that shelf I mentioned above is designed to widen so that you can move the sides of the entertainment center out to incorporate a larger tv than the default. Unfortunately, the shelf is only resting on a couple of little gold inserts that are only about 2 inches long. I really don't think they intended for people to put anything heavy on the shelf, but me being the enthusiast I am, I put a huge, heavy center speaker on it (it makes it bow under the weight). As I tried to move the right piece of the entertainment center, I pulled it about an inch too far, and the whole shelf fell, including the speaker, crashing into my TV and the wall. At this point, I was freaking out. It was a very bad situation - we had no way to easily get behind the TV to lift the speaker, and if we moved the TV out of the way, the speaker would have fallen farther and done more damage. Well my parents stopped me from being stupid in my freaked out state, and we managed to lift the speaker using a ladder, my dads monkey-like arms, and me squeezing behind the center. Amazingly, the speaker had fallen on the power cord of the TV and didn't damage the TV(I hope). It did put a nice hole in my freshly painted wall though...

Which leads me back to today. It was my first time patching a big hole like that, and I don't think I did a tremendous job, but it will pass. I think it's the same for everyone though: as soon as you get your first house, you suddenly have to figure out how to fix all these things you never worried about before. You know it's bad when you start to recognize all the people who work at Home Depot and Lowes .

As for the music that I recorded, it's a song called Trials that I randomly wrote a couple of months ago. I just decided one day, I want to write a song, and I kind of put it all together. Check out the initial version on the music page. Most of the song was recorded in my apartment, so I don't have a song yet that I've done from scratch in my new studio. I'm looking forward to that though. Having said that, I got to use a lot of fun new toys like my wireless controller that lets me undo mistakes and record from anywhere in the room. It lets me redo takes without having to go over to the computer which is the best thing EVER. As for the song, it was fun to make, but I'm not sure it's one of my better ones. It does have my first recorded piano solo though, so that is something at least I still need to iron out some problems with the EQ and such, and probably the levels a little, but overall, the song is mixed ok. I really need to record my best songs though, so I think I will tackle those next.

If you are bored and listen to the song (or any of the songs for that matter), let me know what you think.