How do characters meet in books? They come across the witch while she is fighting zombies and they help her. Ridmark has a truce with the Orc for some reason.... He saves the Magistri and she goes with him for a common cause. He saves the young man's life and he wants to join his cause. He saves the dwarf's life and he wants to help him too. Cheesy story badly edited. But better than anything I ever wrote. Common cause. Saves people's lives.

...too cheesy to emulate. But that's what I always say it seems. And I've never come close to finishing anything.

Just a critic. Able to focus on the faults. Not able to see the positives enough to put in the effort to create.

So I need to see the positives better and focus on them instead. Not that my creation is cheesy, etc, so much.

Turned the horizontal oscillation on at the indoor courts and loved it. Going to buy one. Wife making me wait a few days.... Even found an awesome one that isn't advertised and only sold directly from the company that is a few hundred cheaper for what it does. And really having trouble doing much exercise outside of playing tennis. Don't feel like spending hours a week running. But a ball machine with horizontal oscillation could run me for hours a week. Easier to run that way, plus playing real tennis.

Had a bunch of matches where I split sets recently. Did so with the owner and his son and Blake the high schooler and Arvind. Also lost a couple times to the 6'7" high schooler who looks like a potential pro. And now also split sets with some reallyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR5VBz8amtg old guy. He didn't look like anything but I guess he was deceptive. Was pretty fast and didn't make unforced errors. Also I was taking it really easy on him. Working on a two hand backhand slice. Seemed like a good shot but he handled it no problem. And I wasn't trying to serve hard.

Still I made a ton errors. Just missed over and over again and split 6-1, 5-7. With all the previous set splitting I was thinking I just don't have my legs back yet. This time though, I really did like no running. Afterwards I hit with the lobster ball machine for an hour, having it run me all over the place and really working on the two handed backhand slice.

But that got me to thinking about hitting less topspin. Seems like less topspin would simplify because that's where I was missing agaisnt the old fellow. Looked up Jimmy Connors backhand and he has the top hand in a continental grip where I'm using a double eastern forehand. So I tried that this morning instead.  I've tried just about every grip but I'm not sure I had tried bottom hand eastern forehand, top continental on both sides. On the backhand side topspin is almost just about impossible. It may have worked for Connors, maybe I would hit less unforced errors but I don't like it and I'm not going to do it. No more grip changes. Just going to stick with double eastern forehand. On the forehand side I can hit it flat with sufficient pace. On the backhand side I have a little less pace. If you have less pace, putting topspin on it stops it from just dying. I don't like watching a flat hit ball die. It just sets up too nicely for an opponent. Yes if you hit it hard and get it in it can work, it did for Connors. But I just don't like it. I want to be able to put topspin on it. And as far as unforced errors, I guess slicing it is an option. No more grip changes.

Work instead on improving my agility. So running forwards and backwards. Skipping side to side. Touching the baseline side to side with my hand to get low.

No more grip changes! OK well I might mess around with an eastern forehand grip on the serve, since I'm hitting everything else with that grip. But otherwise, no more grip changes!

Great players have used all hinds of grips. I just need to improve my legs and practice enough if I want to get any better.

Was reading back over my blog. Starting back when I ran 3 miles on the treadmill in 20:59. Wanted to really see how I trained for that. Then I wondered why I went away from it. First i started going to longer (more painful) intervals. Seems I started also trying to increase my mileage to get ready for a half. Made the mistake of trying to run like that Japanese guy Yuki. Did 12 miles at 8:41 pace that way. Which isn't any good And wore myself out a bit that way. And then got a kidney stone. I didn't watch my hydration anywhere near well enough. And then I quit running. It was my last pb before I quit thanks to the kidney stone.

On the positive, I then got into tennis.

Back then I was thinking harder. Looking for a solution. But I think more of a easy solution. Some kind of formula that I could follow. Now I've quit looking for formulas. Now I have this little guy that takes up my time anyway. But feel like there isn't any formulas. Certainly you don't hear others talk of them. Though perhaps if they had found a formula they very well might not want to share.

But more likely it just comes back to going about things the wrong way. Having something messed up with whatever it is that was/is motivating me. Still I want to write. Simply because I want out. I dislike this world.

Yes.
1. Double eastern forehand grip for groundstrokes And at the net and for overheads excluding the serve. Continental for the serve. Close to what Connors did. But I think he was halfway between continental and eastern forehand. Definitely not the usual continental grip from that era. Hard to believe he was hitting his serve with an eastern forehand grip though.
2. Cup the ball in your palm on the ball toss. Release it from your palm. Avoid finger involvement. Avoid thumb touching it and index finger touching it at all. Lower part of pinky, ring and middle finger can hold it a bit but twist wrist as you bring it up.
3. Hit the serve with your wrist. Hitting it with your arm puts backspin on it and it's far less likely to go in. Wrist snap at contact.
4. On drives follow through upward like Connors even though hitting pretty flat.
5. On two hand backhand slice ball needs to be behind you a bit.
6. Use the two handed groundstrokes more to your advantage on ROS and stand in very close.
7. Do something about terrible footwork! Maybe hopping on one leg will improve it. Maybe not.

B gave me her notebooks. They confirm that she's just flat out wonderful if I had any doubt. We get together like two or three times a week. Including occasionally eating lunch at work. Doing stuff in the evenings with J and Hawthy. She doesn't mind Hawthy at all and likes him. She came to see me just about everyday when I was recovering from heart surgery. It has been a really nice year having her in our life. I would do a lot for her. From simple ethics of course. But, well, and more so.

I wish for happiness for her. I think I make her happy. But I hope she can find a good single guy soon.

Feel the best I've felt in a long time thanks to adding in 1 minute intervals.