The Hungry Hungry Writer

It’s late Saturday Night…

The Albama vs UCLA NCAA round 2 game was as close as I thought it would be. But I also thought UCLA’s shot selection was awful going down the wire. If it weren’t for their great defense, this could have been a disaster! And now UCLA is in the Sweet 16! Awesome!

I anticipated the Japan vs Korea WBC semifinal game all day. And both WBC games were great! Cuba vs the Domincan Republic and the night game - Japan vs Korea. I was rooting for Korea - just because they were so strong and exciting to watch. But they didn’t pull it off tonight.

Monday’s championship game will be great. Japan vs Cuba. Big vs Small. Cuba’s win against the Dominican Republic was like “Miracle on Ice” for them. They are the small underdog with young players. The question now is - who is going to defect? All I hope.

In between the Alabama vs UCLA game and the Japan vs Korea WBC semi-final game I read:

The Ways of the Samurai
by Carol Gaskin & Vince Hawkins
My Rating: 7/10

I read it from start to finish in one sitting. There’s only 800 pages. Just kidding. It’s a short 149 pages with glossery of terms. An easy and informative read. If you want to get a taste of Samurai and their culture this is a good start.

I’m not well versed in the Samurai ways but have read a few books; “The Book of Five Rings”, “The Art of War” and now “The Ways of the Samurai”. Of course this book included a brief section on the author of “The Book of Five Rings”, Miyamoto Musashi. And there were other Samurai stories and legends like the story of Yoshitsune. The assination of Yoshitsune was ordered by his very own brother. And one legend claims that Yoshitsune did not die during that assination in 1189, but he escaped to China where he joined the Mongols, changing his name to Genghis Khans. Which gave me an idea for a story!

If you’re interested in Samurai, get started here. Get what you can - as some parts are yawners - but overall informative and quick to read.

My first mile…

Thank goodness everyone was out drinking beer and having fun tonight. It meant NOBODY was at the swimming pool. I basically had it all to myself for most of my swim. And when there were people there, it was one per lane. Awesome.

And today I hit a ‘mile’stone so-to-speak. I swam a mile!

My first 300 meters were warm ups. I needed them. I can’t believe how my technique has faltered. I need to do drills more oftne. The next 400 meters I timed myself and almost matched my fastest quarter mile by swimming it in 11 min 53 seconds. A 2:58 average for 100 meters. Once before I did it in 11:42 but was so spent after that I couldn’t swim anymore. This time I was able to swim 18 more laps!

So St. Patty’s day will be memorable for me. My first mile and a very easy 400 meters!

I didn’t do anything else and went home feeling great!

No ‘real’ workout today. Just training with Victoria at the Dojo. I did some falling and rolling around acting like a stunt man. I’m a little sore from that. After the dojo I was going to go to the gym and all of a sudden got lazy.

The pool has been filled with tons of people. Some that get in the lanes and just play around. The gym should do something about letting people know its not a social area its a fitness area. It sucks big time. But I see the trend. At the beginning of the year it happened because everyone was getting memberships. They say around March people stop going to the gym. So now they are really advertising membership specials and so new ’swimmers’ are getting their feet wet so-to-speak. I say ’swimmers’ in quotes because that’s what they’re not. Couples are playing with each other, splashing around as if this is going to lose them 15 pounds… All the while lane swimmers are waiting and shaking thier heads but are too nice to say anything.

The other night I got in a lane with four people - two couples. I sat at the wall just watching, rinsing my goggles in the water, and staring like, c’mon, let me do what I pay to do - exercise.

Three of them got out of the pool at the far end. An awkward place to get out since the stairs are where I was. One bold one, a female, swam toward me in her two piece beach attire. I did the universal motion giving her respect as a ’swimmer’ and said, “can we circle swim?’. She goes, “what?”. I make it simple, “Can I share the lane?” And with attitude, as if she was training hard and didn’t want to bothered and this is her lane type of reaction she shrugs her shoulder and says, “sure”.

Whatever! At least I got a lane, right?

So I do my one lap and she’s gone. Whew.

THEN… I’m coming back from my second lap and this dork of a guy from the same couple dives into the shallow end. His girlfriend gives chase and cut me off and I pull up, give them a stare, and go around.

I was about to kick some swimming ass. And my look told it all. HINT-HINT-HINT - get the hell out of the pool.

So they do.

And as soon as they get out of the pool and I see all the relief reactions from everyone else who are trying to train, the lanes go back to normal. I share mine with another swimmers and everyone is spaced out as normal.

Whew.

I told a trainer about this and said I should say something to them. I told him the gym should make it clear. He says he sees it all the time and says something to them. But since they know he’s a trainer they tend to clear out when he shows up. I don’t think its the members responsibility to tell people what they can and can’t do. I think its the staff. There’s a sign that says NO DIVING but people don’t care. If a staff member enforces it maybe it’ll sink in.

Friday I hope to do tons of laps.

Just a bunch of stuff to ramble about.

1. ÜBER: The word über comes from the German language. It is a cognate of both Latin super and Greek ύπερ (hyper), as well as English over (as in “overkill”). During the late 1990s, über also became a synonym for super; i.e. übercool - supercool - generally with a slightly intensified meaning. Über is commonly misspelled as uber in English, although the correct substitute for the ‘ü’-Umlaut would be ue, not just ‘u’.

2. LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL…I haven’t played behind the plate in like 20+ years - back in high school. Today, equiped with only a mask and a glove, I played behind the plate as coach pitched to the kids. I took a bunch of foul tips, a bunch of short hops in the leg, and some bounces I had to block with my chest. I kept my knees away so I wouldn’t take a hit in the you know where! It was fun though.

Jake is an über shortstop by the way.

3. TRI TRAINING…
Then to the gym. I had a good swim. Well… I’m sinking all of a sudden. I have to go back to drills. Tons of drills. I tried a ladder workout today as well. I like swimming.

My weight workout was far from über. I felt weak. I was weak. Maybe it was the stress filled days at work this week.

My former trainer, Stephen, tried to convince me to do a sprint tri on April 2. An open water swim! That’s a week before the UCLA Triathlon. I think I just might do it as a warmup. Real slow. Just to see how I do. Then use the week to taper down and kick ass at UCLA!!!

4. WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC…
Clemens has another must win situation today. Please win. He’s the PERFECT pitcher to be starting this game. PERFECT!!! Thank you South Korea for beating Japan! The über Korean team is dominating the competition!

5. SQUINT MOVIES…
“The Turning” - Back to the Dojo today to get Victoria to do that Sidekick better. And chorography with Dale. We have a group of stunt guys working on it and may use a stunt double for the shoot. They are doing a video this weekend for us. WOW.

Victoria and Dale spent hours at the eye docs to get her fitted for some über colored contact lenses for the shoot.

6. MOVIES…
I love the movie SIDEWAYS. I can’t get over it. I’m going to watch it again tonight. I think I own it - that would be über if I did.

7. THE SOPORANOS…
Holy SHIT the season opener was un-fricken-über!!!

8. BATTLE STAR GALACTICA…
The season finale was über but not as un-fricken-über as The Sopranos. I can’t wait till next season! SOMEONE BUY ME THE BSG DVDs!!!

9. GREY’S ANATOMY…
Again, great wrting on this show. But Grey is just a pathetic excuse of a character. It’s funny how supporting cast has better roles. - kinda like Sienfeld! I have nothing über to really say except the show rocks.

10. KIDS…
Jake has another ear infection & Bella has pink-eye. We had to hold her eyes open as she cried and tried desperately to hold them shut in order to put in eye drops. Finally I offered her the most über bribe - chocolate. Now she giggles as the drops drop in her eyes.

11. RUBIK’S CUBE…
Did you know I can do the Rubik’s Cube in less than 30 seconds? Well, my best time ever was in junior high: 27 seconds. Now it’s between 30 seconds and 3 minutes depending on where the pieces fall. I do it by layers which isn’t very efficient. My sister and I learned how to do this on our own finding our own patterns. And we’ve used those patterns for what 30 years? And now I’m teaching an old dog - myself - new tricks. I found a site that shows a method (similar to ours) except its not by layers. It’s more efficient. I love it. It’s hard. It’s… er… über!

12. WRITER’S BLOCK…
Depression? Stress? Stuff like that… yes, it is writer’s block once again. My only-only-only-only outlet for all the crap is my workouts. I can’t get any words out right now except for my daily ramblings. Writer’s block sucks. And I’ve always believed there’s no such thing because there isn’t. Writer’s block can simply be unblocked by writing as I am doing right now. I don’t even have story block. I have it (a story) I just can’t seem to write anything.

…über this {Glenn flicks the monitor off}, writer’s block…

And finally…

13. THE ÜBER WIFE…
Just when you’re finally at the bottom of a bad day and you think nothing can solve the crap you have to deal with = work, financial, wants, needs, your writing future… - your wife lays down next to you and gives you a hug and for a moment everything is not as bad as it seems. I’d like to be stuck in that moment for the rest of my life. Yes, the moment was better than ÜBER.

Yes… end of an era.

Bye bye paintball. There’s no turning back now because my beautiful red Ton Ton Shocker is…

SOLD!

Okay… I’d only sell my Ton Ton for this price for a few people I know. The few people – close friends. And our little friend Ryan (14) was the right person to trust who’d take care of my ‘baby’. He’d also have two Shocker Geeks to watch over every little detail ready to ‘tech’ the gun at moments notice… Dale and Dean. I saw Dean at Dale’s birthday dinner. I go, “what’s up?” He replied with, “I’m not going to talk to you, I’m just going to give you bad looks.” He couldn’t believe I was quitting paintball.

Quitting hockey was hard. Really hard. Quitting paintball was not so hard. No regrets, no remorse, no denial. I still have hockey gear in the garage that I can sell but am keeping ‘just in case’. I loved my Ton Ton Shocker. It was awesome. We shot many players together.

In one memorable moment Dale and I were dealing with a guy who was snap shooting at us. Popping his head in different places and taking a shot. He was doing the right thing. His one mistake – timing. There’s a pattern to everything. And there was a pattern forming here. I picked my spot and right before he popped up I shot two shots. I nailed him right on his goggles as he came up to shoot. It was an amazing shot. The ref gave off an “OHHHH!” And in the middle of battle, Dale and I were cracking up. Oh the good old days…

So it sold. My beautiful Red Ton Ton Shocker that I paid $1100 for back in January 05.

The deal went to good old (or young) Ryan…

What did he get? My Red Ton Ton Shocker (originally $1100), a Freak Kit (originally $100) with all the inserts, two paintball jerseys (originally $20 each), a harness and five pods (originally $30), a throat protector (originally $10), a WGP tank (originally $210) and a Stiffe barrel (originally $70)…

What did I get in return?

A check for $760 + two $150 Clipper Tickets and as Ryan says – Free Food at the Clipper Game with his food “hook-up”. See, Ryan works as a towel boy for the Clipps. What an awesome job. Great kid, a great up and coming paintball player with a great dad that takes him to the field every Sunday to hang with us old guys.

So its gone. I officially do not have a 30 bps marker.

One thing I’ll miss from Paintball is those times in between games when Dean makes us laugh as we kick back under the tent. I’ll miss seeing Steve run up in front of me paving the path for me to fill in. I’ll miss seeing Ryan hanging back and yelling at me about who he sees and who he shot. I’ll miss wondering where the quiet Chip is on the field and realizing he’s filling in just like he’s supposed to. I’ll miss Dale telling me where to go and what to do in the heat of battle. I’ll miss wondering whether Sang will show or not. And I’ll miss running through the sidelines in speedball and wiping up the other team.

But I won’t miss those Sunday’s where I have to ‘gear up’. Or the cost of Paintball cases. Or cleaning my gear. Or cleaning my marker. Or leaving the kids on a Sunday for five or more hours. Or the welts, the dirt, the grime, the stupid refs and stupid players. Or even Dale shooting me as he’s shot me more than anyone else has on the team. (I got him back once shooting him in the back of the head by accident during a speedball game. Yikes.)

I won’t miss the yelling and my aggressive behavior either. I’ve done tons of yelling at stupid players and almost got into one fight with one on the field. He’s the one who charged me. It would have been fun to take the guy down but stupid at the same time. I doubt I’ll ever have a confrontation while racing in a Triathlon. At least I hope I don’t. And that’s good.

Dale is a pretty non-aggressive guy. He’s not confrontational at all. So another thing I’ll miss is Dale getting into all these arguments with refs and other players. One, because its funny to see him get all mad at someone. Two, if he gets into a fight at least its not my fault and it’ll give me an excuse to get a couple of punches in to protect my best friend. LOL.

Two things I regret not doing in Paintball…

One, winning a big money tournament. Two, shooting “Roger the Ref” a couple of times ‘by accident.’

So that’s an end of an era… That is until Jake is ready to play. Well, I guess I can just have Uncle Dale take him since Dale expects to play this game as an old man. I can see it now - Dale shooting ropes as Jake runs down as far as he can and Dale saying, “You’re just like your dad. He liked running down the middle and getting shot at.” Until then it’ll just be Jake and me playing paintball on the XBox.

And that, as they say is, that.

Anyone want to buy my Blue Nasty Impulse???

Again… Dontrelle Willis blew it.

Like I said. I don’t like Dontrelle Willis. Good pitcher yes, but I’ve had this feeling about him since he won the World Series. That feeling is… I don’t know if he can carry you on his back. That’s a tall order for any pitcher. But just name a few despite their win loss record of last season, these guys are go-to guys at any time. Clemens. Jake Peavy. I mean these guys I like. Dontrelle - not for my fantasy team this year. Especially after going 0-2 in the WBC. And the American’s record is 3-2. Both losses go to Dontrelle.

They blew it. These guys should have walked into the Semi-finals. These guys should be hitting tons of balls and scoring a ton of runs. They’ve left runners in scoring position too many times - so its not just pitching. But they’ve scored enough runs per game to win especially with this group of pitchers.

Are American’s just trying to get this thing over with? Are they thinking its not that big of a deal and Spring Training and their ‘real’ season is a few weeks away. Are they not giving 100% effort? I know they want to win, but sometimes when your arm, your legs, your body is being paid MILLIONS of dollars to play the game and you take time out for a tournament, maybe you’re not extending yourself 110% to win. They are scoring most of their runs on Home Runs. Maybe getting the big hit will mean less base running. I don’t know. I just know they aren’t playing to their capabilities. Maybe they needed Tommy Lasorda to manage this team and get on their ass to get them to win.

The South Koreans are definitely THE BEST team in this tournament. They’ve proven it with a 5-0 record. They beat Mexico and the US in back to back games. The US got killed by Canada and stole a win from Japan and now need Clemens to secure a victory which still won’t guarantee a birth to San Diego.

It’s beginning to piss me off.

Just like the Dodgers.

Is Bob Davidson ever going to Ump in the MLB after that call?

In the infamous MLB Umpire’s strike of 1999, 9 umpires committed career suicide by resigning from their contracts hoping it would get them something more than what they were getting already. In Davidson’s case; a $160,000 annual salary.

Hmmm… greed is good???

As recent as three years ago he was earning $20 a pop working softball games while trying desperately to work his way back to the MLB ranks.

Yet somehow Davidson was behind the plate of the USA vs Japan WBC game on Sunday afternoon in Anaheim. He made a call that was one of the worst calls ever made. Fans, sports talk shows, ESPN… they all agree - Davidson’s call was wrong. He overturned the 2nd base umpire’s ruling and made the call that the runner on 3rd left early after tagging up on a fly ball out to left field. The Japanese runner scored but was later called out because Davidson judged he left early.

Apparently the 2nd base umpire had a clearer view. The 2nd base umpire had the right call yet for some reason, Davidson decided he would make a call that eventually changed the outcome of the game.

I’m all for the USA winning this tournament - but not on a bad call by a so-called professional umpire. I stress professional because I can’t help the fact that Davidson made the call because it favored the United States. It’s hard to get past that fact. In a game, or tournament, like this, it would seem the umpires would get together to make the ‘right’ call - not the call ONE umpire thought he should make.

Now with this call, I wonder if MLB will ever give him a chance.

Bring back Eric Gregg!

And then I saw it again. Yowza…

Armageddon (1998)
My Rating: 5/10

Sure, you have to buy the whole astroid destroying the earth scenario first, you know - suspension of disbelief - which I did, but man, what was it that I liked about this movie anyway?

I use to defend it, “It’s not that bad” I’d say. Because I really didn’t think it was all that bad. I mean, compared to say, “DEEP IMPACT”, this movie rocked. “Deep Impact” was incredibly horrible!

“Armageddon” was on Cable during the kids nap on Sunday. Aside from the music by Aerosmith, what was so good about this movie? I DON’T KNOW! It completely went STUPID with Steve Buchemi getting some sort of space dimentia and even stretched the whole emotional get your napkins out and cry aspect at the very lengthy ending. Okay, I tear up every time but still… it was pretty dumb. Stupid really. “The Day After Tomorrow” with Jake Jake Gyllenhaal is a better ‘the earth is going to be destroyed’ type of movie. I was rooting for “Armageddon” to end so I can move on to other better things like ESPN’s NASCAR 06 on the XBox.

So now I see what other people are talking about. I’m only eight years removed, but you know, at least I realize my short comings now. Maybe it was a time in my life when stupid movies were great entertainment. Now its just a waste of time.

Which reminds me… maybe I’ll see “Eight Below” with the kids this week.

From Story Boards to Martial Arts training - our short story is pulling out all the stops.

Dale’s Story Boards - late nights under the lamp.

The finishing touches… for now.

Dale doing what he does best - acting like he’s working.

Glenn observing the Okinawa Te class.

Glenn taking over - first thing - the bow.

Balance is key.

Glenn refining Victoria’s ’sword and hammer’.

Glenn explaining that the sword is an extention of your hands.

Learning to fall forward.

Learning to fall backward.

Stay updated on the progress of filming!

Here are Dale’s Story Boards… Your first view of the flick… Watch as it goes from script to screen…

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