Read The Cursed by Dave Duncan which was OK. Felt like should have been a series but I guess the war that is just beginning lasts 20 years and wars can be pretty boring. Was surprising how suddenly he wrapped it up, yet was able to do so adequately. I guess Tibal Frainith being a ....something scath and being to see the future and saying what is going to happen really helps. Gwin wasn't terribly interesting. Bulion Thorn and his family were nice but nothing stupendous. I enjoyed but it ended and seems to have just dissolved away somehow. All the problems felt somewhat easily overcome. Though Bulion dies. Polion becomes one of the faceless. Spent a lot of my 5 days off reading this. Now it's over. And so is my time off.

I took the ball machine and played for 90 to 120 minutes Wed, Thur, Fri Sat morning. I worked on hitting a western grip backhand like Kuerten. But then this morning I decided to just try an eastern backhand with my thumb up the handle like Budge. Late last night I was reading about stepping into the ball. So I decided to do that also. I don't even know if I had been!?!?! Well on the backhand, yes. But I think not really on the forehand.

And I decided my serving follow through should be like Sampras.

So I practiced a ton with the ball machine this week. Like I haven't done in forever I think. And then today, right before playing a match, I change the most basic thing about my forehand (making sure to step into the shot). And abandon the western backhand I just put 6 hours into and instead hit eastern with my thumb up the handle, which I have never practiced before.

So I previously had beaten this guy 6-0, 6-1. Though he's also beaten me previously. And of course I played not so great. Biggest issue was my forehand flying way long. And I guess that isn't surprising. But I was frustrated as I couldn't figure out what the issue was. Backhand wasn't very good. Though not terrible. Just missing tons of ROS forehands on very easy second serves.

To be expected as I suddenly was trying new things i hadn't practiced. Oh well.

Serve was really good though. Super high first serve percentage and hitting second about as hard. Got some aces and many service winners. And my opponent was an athletic guy with close to a 7 foot wingspan.

Oh well.

On the bright side I could put away deep no pace balls with stepping into them. Just got to figure out the ROS.

It's annoying as this guy has a terrible serve. I ought to be pouncing on it. Not hitting errors half the time and the rest just getting it back. Lost 6-1, 7-6, 6-3. Have my racquets weighted to 13.5 which is probably too high. But will give it a bit of time.

So against a ball machine that one hand backhand was pretty good. But my elbow / tri felt pretty sore after. And now wondering if I'm feeling the beginning of golfer's elbow from EFGF. Almost went away from both but I am going to try to stick with them for a while and see how I feel. Definitely feels the most effortless way to play. Just afterwards.... Just not sure my right elbow will hold up. But I won't prematurely abandon it. Using 8 ounce velcro weight a lot. Definitely improves my play. But maybe isn't helping elbow. It isn't hurting yet. But I can feel it a bit and have had such issues previously. Need to try to keep arm straight on serve like Lukasz Kubot. I just have to lean back without falling back, lol.

Watching the new Clash of Titans and it's terrible. Mostly. Compared to the original. And people like it. And they're stupid for doing so. And giving my opinion of the movie is meaningless in this stupid world. I still love the idea of Hollywood and making art that will make a positive difference for people. Beautiful things/dreams they will remember. It would be nice if cleaning house on the Weinstein types resulted in better movies being made. Things have really gone to hell. All the crap remakes. The drawn out CGI actions scenes. Three guys doing the soundtracks for the entire industry. Kevin Smith going about pitching his script and this guy wanted him to throw in a fucking giant mechanical spider that had absolutely nothing to do with anything. Showed up in Wild West crap remake instead. Why are Mark Walhberg and Matt Damon even put in movies? Well Trump is president. This is the world.

First book of Dust. By Pullman. Plot is a bit contrived. Malcolm and Alice are endlessly chased by guy who knows about Rusakov field. That he is a great scientist and yet so evil somehow didn't seem realistic. Alice was great though. Malcolm was good. This was a book about people interacting and it was pretty good. In an Iliad sort of way. Books should be about interacting. I'm mistaken in trying to write about the red plain. All the things that haunt my mind aren't really proper material for a story.

So there's a flood that goes on forever. Rusakov with his hyena chases them forever. Alice reminded me of S. The way the daemons in the previous book wouldn't be seen for a month as a punishment also reminded me of S. It's been years and she still keeps popping into my mind. ....too much. Whenever I wake up in the middle of the night it seems like somehow she pops into my mind. Oh well.

Then Jesus the Good Man, Christ the Scoundrel. Halfway through. Don't know if I will finish. Got the idea. Organization and Miracles are bad and so on. I agree.

So I've been using a racquet with a stiffness rating of 59. Chang's graphite longbody. Grip and lead tape up to 13.2 currently. Have been practicing with a 8 ounce velco weight which I think is really helpful. Been playing a one handed eastern forehand grip forehand. Little harder to find the groove but I think sticking with it is working. Not blasting a lot of winners but hitting decent pace. Few unforced errors. Return serve even pretty well. Really making sure to get a neutral stance. Can't hit with an open stance right now. Course I haven't practiced it.

Played a japanese lady who is awesome. Had two really close matches. The second one I was tired from playing the day before and not getting enough sleep. And my backhand just didn't have adequate power. On high balls anyway. Was happier with my slice. Think, yet again, about trying to hit a one hand backhand. Going to work on it today.

Serve. Trying to keep arm straight. Think that is important for my elbow. Had some really good serve days and some not so good. Think I just need to really practice it. Which I never do except when playing matches. Think I need to just try to hit one serve for like an hour straight, etc.

Read Pullman's Dark Materials.
May have read it before but there was really something wrong with me back then. Still is probably. But much less so. Some day I will reach that point! If I don't die first.

Liked this a lot. Don't usually care for heroines and I think actually I started liking it more when Lyra was joined by Will. I think that was starting with book 2.

I liked that the fate of everything depended on two people falling in love. You could say that is the most true thing really. Falling in love or at least (or better) falling into like. People coming together. Not literally. Though they can I guess.

And then there are the daemons. It's a nice idea. I'm curious to look up if that represents something specific for Pullman. There is his idea of death. And of course his anti-religious viewpoint. A lot of good stuff in this series. There is a similarity to CS Lewis. But it is better than Lewis.

Curious to see the movie now and then read his related books. His evolution stuff with the mulefa was well thought out. I kept expecting something to happen with those evil water birds. That and the evil priest (Gonzalez/Gomez?) almost didn't really serve a purpose. Almost something that could have been cut out.

But the birds taking a shit on the mulefa's settlement is the one thing that I very clearly remembered (and their seed wheels) from having read this so long ago. I must have been in a very strange place when I previously read this. I dimly recall sort of skim reading a lot of books; searching for I don't know what. Some vague thing that I guess doesn't exist. Though I certainly loved Jack Vance around that time.