Spanish Presentation

My Spanish Presentation went very well today and my teacher, Mr. Burgos, was pleased. I just used my notecards for guidance, unlike many people who read off them completely. Adept in PowerPoint presentation creation, I am able to make a presentation look sharp because of the small nuances about the program that many people do not know about. I remember being taught how to properly use Powerpoint in 10th grade, as well as Microsoft Word and Excel, and it’s pretty amazing what these programs are capable of. So many people just use them for the simple tasks that they are designed for, but there is much more to them and many ways to quickly create exactly what you want to do.

The days until break are winding down and I am definitely looking forward to break but I think the only thing I am worried about is not being able to play much tennis over break. I will definitely do a lot of cross-training type things, like running and skiing but I don’t want to be too rusty for when I come back.

Practice Matches and Some Easy Drills

Today we played practice matches and I wasn’t playing well still. I’m not quite sure why but this week so far I have just been a little off, and I can’t find a rhythm. Hopefully the last two days of practice of the year are really much better but I think for now I really don’t have a clue why I am playing poorly. I lost to someone today who I didn’t think I would lose to, but he was playing very well. I am very impressed with my group’s play in the last few weeks, people that I thought weren’t really that great have shown that they surely can play. So I don’t think I should be too hard on myself although I don’t think I should be losing to anyone in my group if I am playing well. But I guess you’re only as good as your worst day, so I can’t expect to play amazing every day.

After matches today we did some drills and they were on clay courts. Mark decided that we just needed to do something fun so we did a doubles drill, a version of king of the court with different variations every time someone got to 11 points. It was a decent way to end the day and I’m probably the only person that would’ve rather just drilled groundstrokes because I want to figure out what’s going on with my groundstrokes.

Finding a balance

I was having trouble today finding a balance between consistency and aggression. I played someone who I had beaten previously and I lost pretty badly. I was hitting well in the first hour when we were drilling being consistent and keeping the ball deep. But when we played matches I think I tried to ease up too much and ended up just being sort of lazy with my shots, not competitive. This didn’t work and I went to the other end of the spectrum and missed too many balls. I couldn’t really dial it in and it was pretty frustrating. I think what I need to do is just play my usual aggressive game, but just be more selective and patient with my balls, but still generally intense. I tried to play too contrasting to my usual game and it threw me off big time and definitely cost me the match.

Five Days Left

Until Winter break. I’m excited, the days are probably starting to go by slower but tonight I have to finish a spanish project, which might take a while. I think I have two tests this week, and the Spanish project, so a reasonable amount of work to finish up before break. This week is an A week meaning I will have three A-days, which isn’t great because I have Pre-calculus on A-days and that is my hardest class.

I don’t think we will be having a test in that class though so the rest of the week will simply be studying new material and not actually getting tested on it. This takes a bit of the stress off of math but I still need to get working on Spanish and history, because we are finishing the semester strong in these two classes. I’m not sure about marine science but I think that we will be doing some work in there. She has mentioned that we will be watching a movie on the last day before break however.

Superbad

Superbad finally came out on DVD and I bought it at Walmart. even though I’ve already seen it, it’s a really funny movie and I will probably watch it many more times. It was a very successful hit in the theaters, and I’m sure that a lot of people will buy the DVD, as it has been advertised a lot on TV.

We woke up really really late today, and just went to Walmart. I’m going to do some homework now and probably watch a movie or something later on tonight. I’m excited for winter break as we are going to Whistler in British Columbia and that will definitely be a lot of fun. Only five days of school and then a nice two-week break from everything. It will be a good break from everything here although I am hoping I will get to play a decent amount of tennis over break. Right now I have a spanish paper to do but besides that I am pretty much on top of all my schoolwork.

Planet Earth

I bought the video series Planet Earth at Wal-Mart, and have begun watching it. It’s pretty amazing what kind of footage they have come up with, they put an incredible amount of time into this and it really covers an enormous variety of animals. So far I’ve watched the first disk, which takes a look at arctic animals in an episode called “Pole to Pole”, another episode about mountain animals, and a deep ocean episode.

I think so far I like the Deep Ocean episode the best. What we’ve been learning about in Marine Science is some of the deep sea animals survive at ridiculous depths because of the vents on the ocean floor, that heat the water. Without this heat it would be freezing at this depth and inhabitable, but somehow life is able to survive.

I’ve learned that life will come about in places that it can, and animals have only the most primitive thought on their mind… survival. Humans mastered this difficult task, and now have the luxury of thinking about other comforts and entertainments.

Chip Reese Dies at Age 57

Probably one of the more shocking deaths I have ever heard, of simply because I knew so much about him.

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/7527824?MSNHPHMA

David “Chip” Reese was considered not only one of, but THE greatest cash game poker player of all-time, and with that, probably the overall best poker player of all-time. He has been playing long before most, and if someone as well-respected as Doyle Brunson can say that David was “the only player who I could never really get a handle on”, then he must have been quite good.

Reese played in the biggest cash games in Las Vegas, the “Big Game” in the Bellagio, stakes as high as $4,000/$8,000 limit, and I have heard of them rising to an unprecedented $100,000/$200,000.

Aside from his unbelievable poker wisdom and knack for the game, I admire him mainly for his disposition. I’ve played a reasonable amount of poker and I must say that it is a game that tests your patience and temper. Right when you think you can’t handle any more awful luck, fate may continue to deal you the worst of hands, and worst results. For someone who plays poker for a living for more than thirty years, and to have someone who has been alongside you for all this time to say,

“I knew him for 35 years, I never saw him get mad or raise his voice”

is more astonishing than any amount of success at the poker table than I have ever heard of.

Keeping your cool and being polite and mature at the table is much harder than it seems, almost daily you can see grown men crying like three-year-olds on ESPN over a game of cards. For this I respect and look up to Chip Reese’s legacy. He’s a man to look up to, regardless to whether you play poker or not.

On a lighter note, I found it humorous at how Doyle Brunson commented on their business together.

“Brunson and Reese eventually became business partners, investing in everything from oil wells and mining to TV stations and racehorses and becoming sports betting consultants.

None of the ventures was successful, Brunson said.

“We went to look for the Titanic. We went to look for Noah’s Ark. We were two of the biggest suckers whenever it came to business, but we both had poker to fall back on,” Brunson said. “Thank God we could play, so we always survived.”"

He was born a poker player, and on Wednesday, died a poker player.

Went to the Lab

In Marine Science today we went to the lab to dissect jellyfish and clams. To be honest it wasn’t that interesting, clams and jellyfish are not extremely fascinating in terms of their bodily organs. The jelly fish aren’t much more than what you would think, a round jelly-like organism with little orange-ish worm-like things inside that I believe are part of their stomach.

The clams don’t have too much going on inside of them but were quite hard to open. The muscles that clamp them together  do not loosen up even when they die, they still fasten the clam together until it is pried open by some outside force.

I think that later on in the year we are going to dissect larger more interesting water creatures, it’s going to be a whole different experience with animals that actually have blood. I’ve been thinking about certain careers having to do with animals and  wildlife and right now I just don’t think that this would fit me right. I’m fascinated by a variety of different things in nature but I think I would rather become a successful business man and go on a private safari to experience African lions in their natural habitat, rather than diligently recording the migration habits of an American snow goose for a five-figure salary.

Some Philosophical Thoughts

Well I know I haven’t posted anything about this, but I often think about things that I doubt others really do. I spend a lot of time thinking about things like religion and morals, and just some things that don’t require any sort of education, so to speak. The difference between thoughts on moral values as opposed to presidential candidate opinions is that you need to know much more about the subject to give an educated thought into who you would vote for president.

So, I often have discussions with a few friends of mine, both from back home, about these sorts of things. To give you an idea about how intellectual these conversations can get, I’ll say that a few weeks ago one of my friends told me I was “defining things that need not be defined” in terms of a certain issue.

But the one thing I would like to post on today is discipline.  We see different forms of discipline, from a child being confined to his or her room for a set period of time, to a criminal being confined to a 6′ by 8′ cell for a much longer set period of time. But I think that often the punishment that is given is too harsh or not harsh enough, based on what the “punisher” feels towards the wrongdoer. For example, when a man beats his kid for drinking at a party, perhaps he was right in punishing the child, yet the punishment was too harsh because of his vengeance and anger towards his kid. Or when a jury feels sorry for a criminal because he acts in a manner that makes one want to feel sorry for him, when in fact he should be punished more than decided upon.

The main point is that punishment should be a form of setting someone straight, the aim is to make sure they learn their lesson and do not do whatever it is again. Of course it is difficult to determine, but as humans are capable of vengeance and empathy, variance occurs and the punishment is often inaccurately determined.

So, to define it: Punishment should be given with the sole intention of preventing further infractions.

Also, another thought and anomaly: Punishment given which does not provide another chance is altogether selfish. Perhaps the original statement should read “main intention” instead of “sole intention”?

A killer who is given another chance and let out on the streets again puts other people in jepoardy. Selfish. Yet necessary?

This is basically how our conversations go, we discuss something and typically attempt to define it, only to find many exceptions. A struggle to find rules for our society is in my opinion necessary, because only then do we realize the finer more problematic situations. Ambiguity is genius in terms of laws, because of the originality of almost every case sent to court being so different. Laws are guidelines for enforcers to go by, judges and juries are to pay special attention to a certain situation, and constitutional amendments happen when we find a case that requires further guidelines that will most likely be needed for future situations.

As society evolves, our penal system must follow suit, an ever-molding rulebook in which is able to keep most of us in line.

And people wonder why the United States is so successful.

Practice and Probably Matches Tomorrow

I think we are going to be playing matches for the rest of the week but we didn’t today. I have just heard that last year this time the morning groups played matches and hopefully we will get to do the same this year. I want to play some kids in my group that I haven’t played yet, I have worked on my game a lot in the last few months and have watched them play as well. We only have a few more practices this week but if they are all match days then that will be good, I think the coaches are seeing who they want to move up and down in the groups. I don’t know if I would be moved up, Pauls group isn’t really higher than Marks and the next step up is the IMG group. I don’t think that I would be considered good enough to be in that group unless I did extremely will in matches and beat everyone. If somehow I did get moved up I would be very happy because it would mean that I would get to play with all the best players in the academy as well as not have to wake up that early. Either way I am glad that we are playing matches because I want to compete, and I probably won’t have a chance to play another tournament until after christmas, which is basically an entire month away. Even if it is just against my own group I would be happy if we are able to play matches for the remainder of practice before break.