A long morning

I woke up pretty early this morning to start studying. I really got a lot done with my American history work, I have been reading the course and taking notes on what we are supposed to do. I need to get around a 90 on the test to get an A for the semester, but I also have some extra credit that I can do. So I have a good chance of getting an A and I am going to try hard to do so.

However I don’t want to focus all my energy in one class because Precalculus is the class that I have the lowest grade in. My current C needs to get up and a lot will depend on how I do on the final. I am going to ask my teacher how close I am to getting a B, because if I do then I will have something like a 3.5 gpa for the semester.

Some Studying

Well tonight I’m going to be studying for a while and I’m not sure if I am going to go to tennis tomorrow. I think I need to spend tomorrow morning preparing for finals, I have a lot to do for American History and Pre-calculus, and I am surprised at what I have to do for American film as well. I’ll certainly be very busy over the next few days and although I would really like to go to tennis tomorrow I don’t think it’s going to happen.

I want to get a little done with spanish and english as well tomorrow, although my test isn’t until thursday. I just want to clear up anything I don’t really have down, so I can do the time consuming memorization work on wednesday. Thinking of all this I really can’t wait until the week is all over and I can just relax.

Tennis Early Tomorrow

The regular tennis schedule resumes tomorrow, 6:30am warm-up and tennis until 10. Everyone enjoyed not having to wake up extremely early but now vacation is officially over and we are getting back to our normal schedule. Finals are this week so I’ll probably not be enjoying the evenings before the tests that much. I think I have a pretty good handle on some of my classes and I have been working this weekend on some Pre-calculus stuff that I need to remember for the test as well as some Spanish stuff. All my spanish review is memorization, so I just need to put the time in for that. Math is more understanding concepts, but also essentially just doing enough problems to memorize what you’re doing. I think my last final is on thursday, when I have Spanish, Marine Science, and British Literature. I may do one of these on friday so I don’t have such a big load of tests in one day and that would give me another night to study.

First weekend back

Well it’s the first weekend back and usually it’s a good break but I haven’t really played much tennis or anything so I don’t really NEED this sort of rest. I will be doing a good amount of studying this weekend and hopefully I’ll play some tennis as well. I am excited for the upcoming semester, I am definitely hoping it also gets warmer very soon. It is so cold right now that I am beginning to wish I brought my gloves back from home. I decided to buy some for our whistler trip and they proved to be a good purchase, but I just didn’t think i would need them for Florida!

A blunder on my part, I’ve thought a lot about money management and different ways to save money. Certain people just save save save, always thinking about getting the best deals and living cheap. This is time-consuming and I believe that you should invest your time and effort in other areas rather than doing this. I think that people don’t do enough study before making a purchase; there are so many products out there and competing companies, that when you make a big purchase like a new computer, you should  really do a lot of study before buying. Especially things you use a lot, a computer is so commonly used these days that you should make sure that you’re not only getting a good deal but getting what you need for what you will be doing with it.

Britney Loses Rights to See Kids

Well the whole family seems to be continuing in a downward spiral as Britney isn’t allowed to see her kids:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/04/britney.spears.ap/index.html

It isn’t surprising and is a pretty good decision, it was obvious she was not helping her children.

Also recently, Britney Spears’ 15 year old sister got pregnant recently, which questions her mother’s ability to parent her children. Pretty shocking, one would think she would learn from her sister’s mistakes.

It seems to make sense as to why all these celebrities make poor decisions. Typically people who make a lot of money made their money by smart business. They figure out a way to make money, and when it works, they keep making intelligent decisions. However when people make money because of their fame, they don’t exactly have to be smart. They are talented at what they do, but they essentially did not figure out good business on their own, they walked into success.

Too Cold

It was so cold this morning that our coach decided to have us play indoors. But this meant that it was 30-something players to two courts, and so we didn’t get much hitting in. Practice was only about an hour long which was also disappointing. I really hope the weather gets better soon because I haven’t been able to hit much lately and this hour of hitting with a million people on a court isn’t helping.

But we are back in the swing of things, it’s the second day of school and things are getting back to normal here as more people return from vacation. We have finals next week and I’m sure I will be studying a lot this weekend, especially for Pre-Calculus and British Literature. I think those are the two classes that will have the toughest finals, but I have been working a lot in math so I should be ready for the final.

Back in Florida

Well it’s been a nice break but I’m finally back in florida and ready to play some tennis. Unfortunately I thought we had practice at 6:30 thismorning and it wasn’t until 8am. So I went back to my dorm and fooled around on my computer for a few minutes, before going back to sleep for another hour or so. Practice was a lot different, not many people are back yet only two people from my group were there.

It’s so windy now, I’m not used to it because I’ve been playing indoors back at home for the past few weeks. I hope the wind dies down a little bit because it’s just so different from what I am used to. I am going to start taking private lessons with my coach, he had an injury on his hand but it has finally healed. I am hoping to do two or three lessons a week with him.

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.