Pretty much have Nyman's Heart Asks for Pleasure memorized. Now just need to spend a few months improving it. Have first 3 pages of beet's 7th 2nd movement mostly memorized in a way that I can play it with some sight reading glances. Now using metronome to try to get the hang of the third page where the left hand is sort of really 3/4 and the right is 2/4. Sort of. That may take a while to really sync them up. And I really haven't memorized the 2nd page sufficiently. Also still working on pathetique 2nd movement. Have forgotten 4th and 5th page and that's how it goes. While working so hard on Nyman's of course I then forget the previous thing which really I didn't memorize that great in the first place but it will eventually stick. And I really need to brush up Rach's c sharp prelude eventually. And I have unmemorized the the 4th page of moonlight easy movement. Oh well. I haven't been serious at it for very long yet. It will stick eventually. And if I'm glancing at the sheet music I can play this stuff not too bad...

Successfully made potato cakes for the first time. Next will add minced broccoli and garlic. Potatoes are my thing now. Really avoiding wheat. Although I do add a bit to the potato cakes. But really avoiding pasta and bread. Feel better this way. Better energy. Better digestion.

Quitting chocolate. Haven't liked my sleeping lately.

Cleaned my disaster of a mancave/library for first time in many years. Bekah helped. Jeff coming also played a role.

Successfully modded Skyrim for the first time. Way harder than it should be but some issue with my gaming computer of not being recognized as an admin lol. Etc.

Getting very close to juggling 4 balls now. Hardly ever practice it but finally just took some very soft balls to work and practice there a bit. Considering I never practice at home it's pretty good that I can do like 8 to 12 or so throws sometimes.

Thinking to put aside non-dominant forehand because actually I like how a one handed backhand feels better than a forehand anyway. I'll just have to practice it until it gets better. Going to focus on just the drive. Mixing it up with the slice is holding me back. Though I definitely won't do as well in matches without the slice.

Trying to become a d and d dungeon master despite having never actually played the game lol. Watching vids. Reading the books isn't enough I think. Bekah wants me to. And I think it will be very good for my sad writing aspirations.

Playing better tennis I think. Whoopee. Hitting one hand heavy topspin forehands (western) with a closed stance and starting to feel confident it's going to go in. Beat that 6'8" guy who made the finals of the Fitzwater 6-3, 6-1. Bending knees on my serve now somewhat (not perfectly consistently, depends on ball toss) thanks to climbing machine that I really like.

I can say now with certainty that chocolate has played a huge role in my creativity. I say this with some shame. I hate to think my creativity depends on such a thing. But, I didn't touch the stuff for years because of headaches issues and my creativity pretty much disappeared. I have tentatively brought it back. Just a bit here and there (while avoiding all other headache triggers) and my mind is just running off on all kinds of flights of fancy. Like it once did. Though I'll never eat it as much as I once did. Too much creativity may be dangerous.

So I read Planet Narnia followed by all but the last half of the last battle. It didn't ultimately make me a writer. Maybe I should take up smoking? Now reading Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb. It's quite good. Looks like it's going to tie everything up. Bringing a lot of stuff together. Hasn't made me cry though.

Lost the other day 6-0, 6-2 to J Engle. He was excellent at retrieving balls and just pushing them back. I stubbornly stayed back and attempted to rip groundstrokes for winners and hit a bunch of unforced errors. Additionally I didn't even slice on the return of serve. And this was the first match I really tried to stick with the one hand topspin backhand throughout. To win I should have sliced far more and rushed the net a lot. This guy had trouble when he had to generate his own pace and did great when I hit really hard. But I just really didn't want to slice... In the future I'll try to do so though. Want to start hitting a lot more slice and drop shots and coming to the net I guess.

Today took thunderstick (strung at 60 with gamma tnt2), prostaff 6.1 28 (strung at 44? with gamma tnt2 tour) and prince longbody graphite classic (strung at 50 with natural gut) and compared them with the ball machine. Really not much meaningful difference actually. Maybe the natural gut is getting too old but it felt the least forgiving. And otherwise the main difference was I liked how the prostaff felt a bit better I think mainly just because it's strung so loose. The slice felt so much nicer.

As to topspin drives, if I try to put a lot of topspin on them, they can all potentially go wrong. Maybe a prostaff 6.0 85 strung tight would a bit less so.... But here not much difference.

But I am curious to try the thunderstick with a 44 or so tension. Thinking to cut out current strings and put in a nice synthetic.

Looking at dulcimers. Even considered selling my viola to fund buying a nice one. But can't really find any info online about a reasonable price for the viola, so I expect I wouldn't be able to sell it for what it's worth. Do have my eye on a HD that is priced extremely cheap at the moment... Probably should pick up a cheap zither/autoharp too. Still thinking about building my own instrument.

Finished The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett. It was OK. But I need a gritty well developed typical fantasy fiction world. Low tech pseudo England in the 14th century with magic, etc. Or write my own. The bad guys were too simplistic to be very interesting here. Wolves/men in suits that eat the world and don't really have personalities or much of anything really. Just not dark enough ultimately.

Also been watching Hannibal. Watched it and Game of Thrones in the last 5, 10 years... Liked season 2 much better but especially when Will was imprisoned. The idea of the hero stuck in a predicament.

Had really started eating a lot of chocolate and seemed a bit stressy and also having energy lows.. So trying to stop eating it. Tonight was really my first day without and I almost succumbed to an overwhelming urge. Literally stood and looked in the window at the chocolate chip cookies. Kept telling myself if I go home and have a beer the urge will pass.

Went to S's halloween thing last night. Her sister (B) was also there whom I play tennis with a few times each month. Her sister is not as smart. Something about her is really attractive. Her slutty german outfit really didn't hurt. Her brother and father are sort of neat too. Just something about them. S is the best though. My fellow INTJ.

B went with her brother and his friend and a few others outside where they were smoking weed. S said B didn't smoke any but considering she then got really sick and was vomiting I think she probably did. Anyway to think of her smoking it bothered me at the time a bit. Almost a lot. I don't really know crap about drugs but I walked by the porch screen door and it almost looked like something beyond weed... Don't think it was but strangely it bothered me to think of her being like that. S says she's all about following the crowd and oh well. B doesn't keep it real like S. Not entirely sure why she wants to play tennis with me.... S is kind of awesome. One of a kind. The only person from working at the hospital that is very interesting. (Maybe that one girl who plays the cello somewhat.)

4th run was bad. 11 miles in 1:38:45 but I recuperated very well despite running very hard.
5th today was 11 miles in 1:35:55 on the harder hillier (BR) course.

Also started eating chocolate again a few days back and have not had a headache. I think eating chips (the preservatives in them...??) made me more susceptible and then all kinds of things put me over the edge. Now I can drink alcohol, cheese and chocolate even without issue.