Tonight’s bowling highlights:

• Turkey in the 10th frame
• No huge swings–up or down–from my average means consistency
• Four consecutive strikes

That’s a pretty short list, but that’s how it goes sometimes. I did manage to pull a turkey, but it was only to turn a pretty cruddy game into an average one. I had the hardest time finding my “spot” tonight. This “spot” is that magical place that, once found, can yield several strikes and good solid hits on the pocket. I found it Saturday when I bowled that 199 and I held onto it for the entire game. I couldn’t find it tonight, though. In fact, as I thought about it, I realized that I haven’t ever found that spot since we started bowling at Alley Katz. I don’t know what it is about those lanes, but I just never roll very well on them. I dunno’, maybe it has something to do with the smoke machine, black lights, drunken screams and spilt beer. It’s just a theory.

So, I’m going to try to be in bed by 3:30 tonight. That’s a pretty good improvement over the past few days. I’m pretty worn out because I spent about six hours today debugging that stupid computer program I was writing. Ironically, it turned out that I wasn’t even debugging the right part of the code. The program I wrote to test my homework assignment was flawed, so that made it seem as though my homework assignment wasn’t working. What I don’t want to know is how long the homework assignment was working before I figured out that I was testing it wrong. I can’t stand wasting time because of sheer stupidity.

Anyway, the semester is winding down and that means my workload is winding up. Homeworks, projects, exams, quizzes, labs–all of these things are awaiting me, a gauntlet of sorts. This is my time to shine or fizzle out, though. I have to finish strong or I could end up with some pretty cruddy grades. I’ve already got my whole next week planned and, as long as I stick to my plan, I should be alright. Then, I just have to ace my finals and I’m home free. Here’s to hoping…

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I just put new strings on my guitar and made some adjustments to the action. It feels much better now than it did about 2 hours ago. One of my favorite things is to play brand new guitar strings, especially when the guitar is all cleaned up, too. I polished it, cleaned the fretboard and tweaked it out.

Action is essentially how easy the strings are to push down to the fretboard to make a sound. If the action is “too high”, then it’s difficult to press the strings hard enough to get a good, clean tone. If the action is “too low”, then it’s easy to press the strings to the fretboard to produce a tone, but the strings will tend to buzz because they’re too close to the fretboard and, when they vibrate, they make contact in places other than where you want them to. The trick is to find a setting that feels good to play, but also doesn’t buzz or hurt my hand (from pressing too hard). I’ve been actively trying to find this perfect setting for my guitar since I got it a little over two years ago. There are so many things that can contribute to the feel and sound of the guitar that it’s hard to prescribe a way to simply set everything up so it’s perfect.

There are just too many variables that are dependant on each other. Some of those variables are: String gauge (how heavy the strings are), neck pitch (how much the neck is bowed, if at all), saddle shape and height (the saddle is the little piece of bone or plastic that is right next to the sound hole where the strings rest). I’ve been messing with these three variables for a while now. I adjusted the neck about a year ago and haven’t messed with it since (it seems to be setup about right for what I need), I shaped a saddle about a year and a half ago that I’m pretty happy with, although I’ve also tried using the original saddle too as I’m not convinced that either is better, and I’ve recently decided that I’m going to use “Custom light” gauge strings. This setup seems almost ideal, but I’m considering trying to bring the high strings (e and b) closer to the fretboard because they seem just a little too difficult to press, play the note and get off of quickly enough to do any fast improving.

That’s the scoop on my guitar. Oh yeah, and my guitar is a Takamine FD-360 SC (2000 model) and I’m very happy with it, especially considering what it costs to get a comparable Taylor or Martin.

Worst post ever…

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I went bowling with some really good friends of mine this afternoon and we all did pretty well. I bowled a 145 my first game (pretty much right at my average) and a 199 my second game. For some reason, my inability to complete a turkey is still haunting me. I had three opportunities to capitalize on two consecutive strikes during that second game, but I always came up short. The first two times (which can be seen as X X 9 / on the score sheet below), I got two strikes and then left the five pin standing on my third attempt. That was extremely frustrating. What was more frustrating was that, when I went to bowl the last frame (the all-important tenth frame), I had to wait a good minute and step onto and off of the lane about three times because the people bowling on either side of us had no sense of “bowler’s courtesy”. Ultimately, I simply had too much time to think about that first roll in the tenth frame and I screwed it up. This was an excellent game, but I should have easily broken 200 and instead, I’m stuck with my highest score ever being a 199 and the thought that I still haven’t hit 200.

That’s the way the cookie crumbles, I suppose. Maybe Tuesday night will be my first 200. It would be pretty special to hit it with my bowling buddies anyway.

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Tomorrow’s officially designated Sleep-In Day. I have a class, but I figure I haven’t been in ohhhhhh two weeks or so now, so why bother going tomorrow? Basically, all I have to do is get a 75% or better on the next quiz and I get an A in the class. I think I can pull that off. Basically, I’m right on target for the ol’ “4.0″ this semester, save one class: Data Structures & Algorithms. I have a 100% homework average, but my test grades are 71% and 50%. The instructor claims to grade on an absolute grading scale, meaning it doesn’t matter how the rest of the class performs, everyone’s grade is based on the 10-point scale: 90%-above is an A, 80%-90% is a B, etc. Needless to say, I’m hoping he’ll curve it a bit anyway. I don’t want to talk about that anymore.

Oh yeah, I’m sleeping in tomorrow. I’m pretty excited about that, too, because it’s been almost 4 days now since I last slept in. There’s just something magical about waking up because I’m good and ready to, rather than waking up because some electronic demon is screaming relentlessly at me in harsh, prolonged beeps. I got my room cleaned and my hair cut last weekend, but I never got around to cleaning my car and since it needs it pretty badly, I’m hoping to get to that tomorrow. I’m also going to go ahead and start studying for my finals. Now, my alter ego, whom I’ve put to rest for a short time, so I can succeed in my classes this semester, would be thoroughly disappointed in my for fending off the procrastination bug. I’ve decided I don’t care what the other me thinks and, by golly, I’m going to do well. It’s been a while, but I remember a time when I shacked myself up in my cruddy little hole-in-the-wall garage apartment for five days studying for finals and I actually did very well on them all. I’m hoping to pull off a similar miracle this semester, particularly in Data Structures. A friend and I have both decided we’re going to get 100%’s on the final–I’m doing it because if I don’t, I could end up with a pretty nasty grade in this class; he’s doing it because his ego’s at stake.

We played basketball tonight and, for the first time in a while, I played how I expect to play every time I walk onto the court. I was knocking down open jumpers, knocking down not-so-open jumpers, making lay-ups and, best of all, making some really nice passes when and where they needed to be made. It’s been a while since I felt so good about my own performance; hopefully, I’ll be able to do that again soon. On a related note, I saw three of our men’s basketball team players playing a pick-up game today at our recreation center. I have decided I’m going to try and run at least one game with those guys before the end of the semester, just to see what I’m really made of. I think I have between two and three weeks left to try and arrange something.

Bedtime is near and, as my mom has always told me, I’ve never been one to fight sleep when it begins to take over. I honestly don’t remember ever complaining about being told to go to bed. I’m sure I did at some point, but it was so scarcely an occurrence that I’ve blocked it from my memory. Good night to all, and to all a good night…

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Let’s get right to it. Tonight, I had an embarrassing moment added to my short list of embarrassing moments. I think the story will have the most effect if told backwards. Here goes:

So, here I am, laying on my back on well oiled wood flooring, staring up at purple lights and wondering how many pins I hit on that botched roll. I decide to crane my neck and take a look. Eight. I drop my head back to the floor, stare at the ceiling for a minute and figure it’s about time to get off the lane so someone else can have a go. I make sure and put my shoe in the gutter when I’m standing, so I don’t have another spill before this one’s even over.

Alright, let’s see if I can capitalize on this double-strike and pull a turkey. All I have to do is the same thing I did the last two rolls: stand with my right toe two boards to the right of the second dot to the right and aim for the high pocket. One step, two steps, three steps, four ste…. stutter, stutter, reeling forward, trying to catch my balance, feet sliding on the oil, wham–somehow, I just fell flat on my back.

I’m next. I’ll just put a little slide in the thumb-hole, to make sure the ball doesn’t catch on the release–I want to make sure I get a good roll, so I can maybe pull another strike. That’s funny, my shoe isn’t sliding as well as it usually does. I probably just stepped funny when I was stepping up onto the wood. Can’t worry about that now. I need to focus on this roll.

(Unknown to me, the guy at the lane next to ours was thinking this:) Doh! I just spilled my cup of beer that I’m not supposed to even have down here on the lane. There’s a pretty nasty puddle under that guy’s chair too. I’ll just quietly walk myself and my half-spilled beer back up here to the table; maybe no one will notice my boo boo. Uh oh, that guy just stepped all in my spilled beer and those aren’t rented bowling shoes either. Hopefully he doesn’t notice.

Yeah, that’s right, some jerk spilled beer on the floor, which got on my shoes, which stuck to the floor and caused me to lose my balance. That landed me right in the middle of our lane with a bunch of drunk people (and also my good buddies–thanks guys) laughing at me. It’s not bad enough that I’m really self-conscious and extremely fearful of doing something to embarrass myself–now I have this guy helping me get set up for embarrassment. I have a hard enough time watching out for myself–I don’t need to be trying to make sure some drunk guy isn’t spilling his beer everywhere including under my feet. On top of that, I was rolling one of my best games ever before that little incident (98 in the 5th frame) and I ended up rolling an average game by the end and I was scared to death of falling, so I couldn’t get a good roll to save my life. What a stinkin’ night.

Anyway, other than that little mishap and the fact that all of us bowled absolutely horribly, I had a pretty good night. Also, my butt hurts, but I’m glad it was there to break my fall and buff up the lane for everyone else.

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Well, there’s not much to say tonight. We went to see Big Trouble as it was movie night. It was an alright movie. Nothing fantastic about it and nothing really awful about it. It was just kind of bland and I’m sure I could have found something better to spend my five bucks on. After the movie, I went and played Spades with a few of my buddies. First of all, I had a great time hanging with those guys (even if I do have one friend that seems to disappear pretty regularly when we go over to his place). Second, I think I’ve finally got a pretty good handle on the game of Spades. I’ve been thinking that for a while, but I figured it’d be best to lay low �til I knew for sure if I was actually improving as a Spades player and that I wasn’t just getting “lucky” or however one might term something meaning “I’m not demonstrating my actual skill level”. I’m learning that Spades isn’t about how many books (tricks) one can take, rather it’s more about taking as many tricks as one said he could take. What I mean is, it’s not so much about how “good” your hand is, but it’s more about how well you play your hand. For instance, by most standards, the hands I was dealt tonight were pretty cruddy–always low cards, very few Spades and often lots of cards in one suit–but I was able to go nil (intentionally taking zero books) about five times, which translated into about three hundred points in a game that is only played to five hundred points. All that was said simply to reiterate the fact that it’s not about what you’re dealt, but how you play it. You’ve also got to have a partner that thinks like you do–not necessarily a great Spades player (although that helps, I’ve learned), but someone who thinks the same way you do. That one’s for free…

Okay, it’s story time, so everybody huddle up! So, I happened to be online today checking my e-mail or the status on some of my Ebay auctions when the *door opening* sound came through my speakers, indicating that someone on my buddy list had logged on. This person was someone to whom I hadn’t spoken in a few years and, at first, I wondered why her name was even on my buddy list anymore. I dated a girl my freshman year and this girl (who just logged on) was my then-girlfriend’s roommate. Then, I became curious whether she was still attending UF, so I punched her name in the University of Florida Directory because it will give general information about an individual’s classification, year, college, etc. Turns out she’s a senior and her address (which is sometimes listed, sometimes not) looked really familiar. I thought about it for a second and realized that, at least, that address is in the neighborhood where I lived my first semester at UF. Curiosity got the best of me, so I IMed her and asked how she was doing and what she’d been up to. Then I asked if the house she is living in happened to be the house I lived in my first semester. Turns out it is! The ironic thing is that the guys that I roomed with ended up getting evicted about six months after I moved out, whereupon the property owners vowed to never allow guys to live there again. So, to recap, this girl who is my “ex-girlfriend’s” (man, I hate that term) old roommate is living in my old house! I thought that was a little odd. So, we continued talking, mostly about her sorority and how involved she is nowadays. One of her sorority sisters happens to be the girl with whom I attended 6th through 12th grades and went to prom my senior year. Another one of her sisters happens to be an extremely attractive engineer who’s caught my eye more than once�I�m afraid that’s about the maximum potential for interaction I have with greeks that aren’t friends of friends. The last girl mentioned (the engineer) happens to be moving into that same house next year.

If that’s not a strange string of silly coincidences, I don’t know what is. Also, if that’s not a ridiculous abuse of alliteration, I don’t know what is. I wasn’t going to bother wasting anyone’s time with that story, but a couple of my friends said they thought it might make interesting reading on my blog. I figure there’s got to be a first time for everything.

It’s 3:30 am and I have to get up in eight hours to suffer through three classes. Man, life is just too rough sometimes. I’m still officially in slacking mode because I don’t have anything due �til Thursday (and it turns out that assignment may not be due at all because we get a drop in that class and I haven’t used mine yet). So, what I’m saying is that there’s a good chance I won’t have anything due �til next Monday or so. Sometimes it’s frustrating being a college student and sometimes it’s a stinkin’ breeze. I’m going to see a final four intramural basketball game tomorrow night–that should be pretty good. And I’m having dinner with some good friends on Tuesday–I’m really looking forward to that. Tuesday night is also quarter-bowling night and I’m hoping to humble some guys this week. We’ll see.

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What a relaxing evening. After my stress-a-thon today, I came home from campus and crashed straight into my pillow. Three hours later, after a few really strange dreams and several phone calls that I missed, I awoke, disoriented, refreshed and carefree. I don�t have anything due until next Thursday. It might as well be Spring Break all over again.

So, I was feeling mellow as was my buddy and so we went to Hop�s for dinner and then headed up to Blockbuster to find the movie that would be our excuse to lounge around and stare at something. The movie we picked was Hearts In Atlantis and as near as I could tell, the list of famous actors on the cast list began and ended with one Anthony Hopkins. Of course, we felt kinda� awkward�two guys, Friday night, renting a movie with the word �Hearts� in it�but I don�t think either of us really paid the strangeness of that combination of circumstances much mind.

Anyway, the movie was good. I assumed it would be decent at worst because it was based on a Stephen King novel. King may write some strange stuff, but it�s always tight and he seems to focus on humans with strange abilities and connections to other humans–The Shining, The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption and so on. Essentially, the whole movie was a flashback, but not one of those long, drawn-out flashbacks. I had pretty much become totally absorbed within the first five minutes. The focus is on Hopkins� character, Ted, and his developing relationship with a young boy (just turned eleven years old), Bobby. It becomes evident pretty early on that the boy and Ted will have as special connection. Ultimately, the story is one about Bobby growing up and Ted imparting wisdom on an independent, insecure kid. I�m done with my cruddy summary now and I�m going to move on to the movie�s impact on me.

I think because the movie�s focus was on childhood, I got to thinking about my own. Shortly thereafter, I realized something: I actually have a childhood to think about. I think this is the first time it�s hit me that I�m not a kid anymore. That part of my life is over and I�m now a young adult. A �man�, I guess. An immature, uncertain, sheltered, spoiled one, but a man nonetheless. I can look back on my childhood friends�in middle school, there were two good friends that lived in my neighborhood and a couple good friends from school. Eventually, the two neighborhood buddies became my closest friends. The ironic thing about my friendship with those guys was that, at first, we only had one thing in common�we could all play basketball for hours without batting an eye. I learned a lot from those guys. I also haven�t talked to either of them in about a year now. They�re �the guys I grew up with�.

My first �steady� girlfriend is married and is not someone whom I think of regularly. Her existence no longer poses a dilemma, rather it provides a memory. I learned a lot about myself during the two years we dated and I�ve learned a lot since. I think it�s been over three years since I saw her, much less spoke to her. This isn�t something I talk about much.

The days of bi-weekly-weekend-visits at my dad�s are over. I no longer live at my mom�s house. My summers are spent trying to make money rather than trying to find ways to kill 15 hours a day other than watching television and eating whatever I could scrounge up. Pulling an all-nighter isn�t as big a deal as it used to be. And, when I do pull all-nighters, it�s not so I can play a new video game or sit around talking about writing fiction (yeah, me and a couple of friends decided we were going to write fantasy/adventure novels when we were in sixth grade), it�s so I can finish a project or study for a final. My future, as I saw it then, is happening and has been replaced with my future as I see it now. If my future as I see it now is as different as the present is from my old view of the future, I have a lot of surprises awaiting me.

It seems like the answers to all the questions I had when I was young have been answered. The answers to those questions, however, are simply more complicated questions. The older I get, the more I realize why �grown-ups� are always so quick to point out that wisdom is not knowledge. As I age, I feel that I�m gaining wisdom (bit by bit, inch by inch, day by day), but I feel dumber with the moment. It�s as though my quest for knowledge continually leads me to a door, which I think contains the room with the answers to my questions. But, when I open the door, I realize it�s actually just a door to a less-organized, bigger room with more doors and less lights. My guess is there�s no room with any answers.

I�ve rambled too much with too little to say and it�s time for me to sleep. Tomorrow, I�m going to try and clean my room, wash my car, get a haircut and do some hanging out. All of those options sound really good to me. I can�t wait.

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Tuesday night means bowling night. My average tonight was up by about 20 pins per game. If I remember correctly, my scores (in ascending order) were 138, 147, 147, 153. Not terribly high, but pretty consistent. For now, consistency is all right as I’m basically just trying to figure out what works for me with this ball and on my approach. I Turkeyed at the end of our last game–I was in danger of not even breaking 100 and I break out with 3 strikes and a 9 to finish ‘er off. It was luck, but it saved my self-esteem for the week.

I’ve been trying to make some cash on Ebay lately, but so far I’ve had no luck. I don’t need much, just enough to get me through the semester–the story of my life. This summer’ll be good for bringin’ in the bucks. I’ll be back working at Raytheon Company again and I’m getting a raise (about a buck an hour, I think). The clincher will be whether I can pull two things off: First, I need to find a cheap place to live while I’m out there–I spent almost 1500 bucks on rent during the 3 months I was in Dallas last summer; Second, I need to find a subleaser for my place here in Gainesville while I’m gone–that’s never been a problem before, but it’s definitely not a gimme’. If I can manage those two things, I should be able to save up quite a bit of money by the end of the summer. That is, if my car doesn’t decide it needs a make-over again this summer–I dropped a grand on it last summer, just doing regular maintenance: alternator, battery, brakes, tires, fuel-injection service, etc.

Anyway, enough about money. My post a few days ago was pretty heavy. That was ’cause I was feeling pretty heavy. Since, I’ve spent some much-needed time with the Lord and I’ve tried to alter my focus from inward to outward. I realized that if I focused on myself, all I’d ever see was a disgusting being because that’s what my flesh is–disgusting. I decided instead to focus on God and His plan for me. That’s not disgusting, it’s relieving and ultimately beautiful, though it can be scary at times. Anyway, I’m trying to change my focus and so far–slowly but surely–it’s working.

I’ll soon be adding a link to a few of the songs that Chris (mostly) and I (kinda’) did a couple weeks ago at the Oxford Coffee House here in Gainesville. We’re hoping to record some things before Chris graduates at the end of the semester and I’m sure those recordings will be far superior to these. It was just too difficult to keep things tight (and accurate) without the benefit of monitors and with the hindrance of all the crowd noise. I think it was a blessing that the crowd was loud because they couldn’t here the little mess-ups (there were many on my part), but recordings don’t lie and so the recording sounds pretty bad at some parts (at least from my perspective–I focus mainly on my guitar playing). Anyway, the link should be up soon and any feedback is welcome (via e-mail or comment or whatever).

That’s all for tonight, sports fans. Except that I think I won the pool this year for the NCAA College Hoops tourney. One point separated me from second place. Whew. Now, I’m makin’ off with a cool twenty bucks. That’ll go toward the “driver improvement” course I’ll be taking to knock the points from “cutting corner to avoid intersection” off my license.

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Movie night was moved to tonight because of the Oscars on Sunday night. So, we went to see E.T.. There were several cool things about the movie, the coolest being that E.T. was the first movie I ever saw in the theatre (and, as it stands, it also happens to be the last). I was two. Another nifty thing was that one of my friends had never seen it before. I’m not sure how she managed it, but she went twenty years without seeing E.T.–strange. She really dug it and I also thought it was a great movie, but I’m probably biased ’cause I’ve liked it since I was a kid.

In other news, I wrote some song lyrics today. I haven’t written lyrics (or poetry, assuming there’s a difference) since last summer and even then, it was a short unfinished song. Since Saturday’s show, I’ve pretty much decided I’m going to write music. I’ve been learning a lot about the guitar this semester and it’s becoming easier for me to transpose my thoughts into music. I’m hoping this summer is a big musical pow-wow for me. We’ll see.

Speaking of musical pow-wows (which should be a topic in every conversation), I bought a used CD burner from a friend today. It’s an 8x, which is relatively slow by today’s standards (I believe the friend who sold me this 8x just bought a 24x), but compared to my old 2x, which I’ve been using for almost four years now, it’s lightning fast. I’ve decided I’m going to put all my guitar lessons onto CD, so I can listen to them on the way to Dallas this summer. With my old 2x burner, it would probably take ten or so hours to burn everything, but with the new 8x, it will probably only take an hour or two. Not that anyone cares, but I like getting cool new stuff, especially when I’ve wanted that stuff for a while.

Okay, I ate at Waffle House after the movie and it’s starting to make me veerrrryyy sleepy, so it’s time to cut my rambling short. I love sleep.

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Tonight was Oscar night and it was relatively boring. I remember, in years past, really enjoying the show and the personalities, but this year was basically a bore. My one strong feeling is a negative one: Sean Penn was robbed. Having seen Training Day, A Beautiful Mind and I Am Sam, I can say that I feel Sean Penn did a far better job in I Am Sam than Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe did in their respective movies. Not to say that the latter two guys did a bad job, they just didn’t do as phenomenal job as Sean Penn did. I spent two hours fully believing that he was disabled and really wanted custody of his daughter again. That’s enough about The Academy.

I’ve been informed that the first half of last night’s set is already on CD, so I am now only awaiting the second half to be completed. Once I have it, I hope to rip it to MP3 and post it on the web somewhere, so people can download it and say “How could I allow myself to miss such an incredible show?” or “Man, that recording brings back some great memories…” or “Eh.” Anyway, hopefully it’ll be up soon. I have a copy of my “performance” of Trippin’ Billies and I think the recorded sound quality is great, but as for my ability to cover the song, I could’ve done better, but it’s too late for that now. I’m just glad I had such a good time. And I, as is Chris, am grateful for all of the encouragement I received after the show; that made it all worthwhile.

I have a guitar lesson at eleven this morning, so I should get some sleep. Three days till the lot of us goes to see E.T. on the silver screen. That will be a truly memorable experience for me as E.T. was the first movie I ever saw in the theatre. I can’t wait.

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