Bought a folkcraft pathfinder 15/14 hammered dulcimer. Originally 930, got it for 600 used. Second best sounding one they had at the store out of 7. Ugliest looking one, still looks OK. Seems a decent price.

So it sounds beautiful. Hammered dulcimers generally do. The problem is they're tuned into major keys. That's why all the songs one hears suck. For starters retuning to just c major/a minor. But will probably eventually go to c sharp minor, the ultimate key. And may go further but first want to read up on just how much away from the original tuning you can go. Guy said a full step. I wonder if you can go a bit further. Could make it a lot more interesting if the notes weren't in succession.

I need to keep track of how racquet/stringing combinations hit/felt.

prostaff 6.1 stretch 95 with TNT 2 tour at 43. Hit good but eventually seemed like my elbow wasn't great. Elbow wasn't horrible but TNT2 tour is a "crisp" string and seemed like elbow was worse then when I was using natural gut in the Prince Graphite Classic Longbody at 50. So far that hit the best and felt the best on my elbow, though elbow still wasn't 100%, have to be careful to keep arm pretty straight on my serves.

NXT at 44 in prostaff stretch 95. Not awful but really not as good as the natural gut at 50 in the PGCL.

Some kind of poly in prostaff 6.0 85. Elbow I think wasn't so good. Didn't even attempt to serve. Highly unlikely I can play with a poly.

Going to put natural gut in the prostaff 6.1 stretch 95 next and NXT in the prostaff 85.

PGCL-11.6 ounces 10HL flex 61, swing weight 334
Can't find specs for prostaff 6.1 stretch 95... Racquet technology is idiocy. No one makes longer racquets or smaller head frames. Stuck trying to find used discontinued models on ebay. Got a Lendl Kneisel the other day. But if I love it, what then? Anyway still haven't found it's specs either. Curious what the headframe size is...

Won against Rob W 6-4, 6-0. He was the 3rd rated player out of the 31 player league. Not happy with my play although I've only moved up to 10th so far so this was good. He couldn't really handle my serve and couldn't do much with my slice. I rarely hit my groundstrokes hard. Really wimped out on my backhand drive. But then just the time before I was experimenting with yet another grip which makes it hard to get confident. Now thinking instead to just hit continental for slice and drive. Worked for Lendl.

This guy had good strokes and a decent spinning left handed serve but no touch. Couldn't handle my lack of pace and slices that barely trickled over the net. Also he was afraid of my forehand drive. Tried to just hit to my backhand. Still i won the last 8 games.

I like to watch football a little because I like athletic stuff but good lord is it a stupid sport. The injuries, the repetitive interviews, the media's attempt to stir up soap opera-like drama, the two hours worth of commercials, the very idea of rooting for one team (when every three years there's 90% percent turnover, virtually none of whom are even originally from the area), the fact that it's not even a sport the vast majority of us can even play (or would actually want to), three yards and a cloud of dust over and over again, the idiotic announcers, and so on. Still watch it pretty much every week though.

There are other people who think the same but I've only heard people say such things who aren't athletic, which leads one to wonder if they're jealous or have some kind of bias. Never heard it from someone who was athletic (though surely there are some). I bother to express it because I'm stuck halfway I guess. I like sports but then find myself annoyed by the stupidity. And need a reminder. But feel like I should keep quiet almost. That others will feel inferior or like I'm attempting to make them inferior when if I never say it outloud, it's like I can forget myself and go back to being stuck with this vague unhappiness as I spend time wallowing through stupidity. 

In other news I've decided to not just use a continental grip on all shots. I am going to switch it a bevel for the backhand drive and a bevel and a half (the other way) for the forehand drive. Did so today for the first time with the ball machine. The backhand drive was actually a little better than the forehand. Trying to avoid very much topspin to simplify it. Forehand isn't consistent enough though. 

Ran today outside for first time in a while. Decided to do fewer interval repetitions. Just every ten minutes or so for 2 minutes or even less. But may attempt to at least once a week do a longish run. 

Tried to buy a hammered dulcimer online but got outbid with 13 seconds left. May try to visit some shop to get to play with some next weekend. None are anywhere nearby. Like that it's such an old instrument (1000 years). But I've never actually heard one live, lol. 

Pretty much have quit cello because I miss polyphony and am just not happy with the songs I know of to play on cello. After playing dulcimer a bit I'm curious about making an instrument. Thinking of something that can do triple or quadruple, etc stops. Do really like the sound of double stops where at least one has vibrato and/or is sliding tones. But haven't attempted to make a "song" using such techniques. It was the messing around with this though that made me realize how much I miss polyphony and ultimately has me bored with regular cello playing and thus haven't hardly played in months. 

Won my match today 6-2, 6-1 against Ab M, a 4th year med student. I played almost solely with a continental grip for all shots. First time ever did such a thing. Worked just fine against this guy anyway. He wasn't very consistent though. He had a hard time with my serve and he had some trouble with my slices that just skimmed over the net. I really didn't do anything special though. I dinked a lot. Gave him no pace. Afterwards we hit around and I mostly still just hit continental and I'm curious about hitting a flat forehand that way. Seemed like I might still be able to hit it decent and possibly with more consistency than I manage with a western.

This was also the first time I played with my prostaff 6.1 95 28 with TNT2 Tour at 44 pounds instead of the Prince Graphite Classic Longbody with natural gut at 50 pounds. Made no meaningful difference. Still hit some aces. Although all and all my serve might have been a little slower, maybe. Not a big difference though.

This guy wasn't very good 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.)

And so I won 6-3, 6-0 tonight against Art R. Little surprised it was that close but took some time to get used to some very fast balls I hadn't played with before on top of the fast indoor court. And then won the last 9 games.

Despite natural gut at 50 my tennis elbow flared very slightly and think that's because I was bending my elbow too much on my serve. I didn't hit a decent one handed backhand the entire match but this guy wasn't good enough for it to matter. Thinking a ball machine isn't going to be enough to ever hit a good OHBH. Need someone to just hit with. But on these indoor courts slice works really well. And I can even hit a wimpy flat OHBH with my serve grip I guess...

All the running I do (only 30 minutes twice a week lately) also really helps my game. No doubt of that.

I watched Wawrinka on youtube then went to courts with ball machine trying to emulate him. With proper footwork and a straight arm I definitely hit OHBH better. Not too sure about returning a hard serve as it will be hard to have time and also hard to practice it. I guess just wait till the last second when using the ball machine?

Read a bunch of tennis biographies and autobiographies. John McEnroe really didn't impress me. Nor did Jimmy Connors. Seemed like pretty dumb guys. McEnroe was depressing. They both seemed like asses. Pete Sampras also kind of a dumb guy although at least nice. The biography of Lendl was interesting. Always liked him best. Monica Seles is basically brain dead. Now started one on Rafael Nadal. He's far more interesting. Gives more of the details that I want to hear about while the others just randomly report match results slam after slam with a few random events thrown in.

Richard Williams wrote a pretty neat book. Not really a tennis book. More along the lines of Fredrick Douglas except more interesting actually. Seems a very underrated book. He admits to breaking the law and getting away with it quite a bit. Seems owning a business is the way to go in life if you really care about making money. Not that I didn't already know that. I don't care enough I guess.

So I'm an INTJ. My wife is an INFJ. My one sort of close friend (sort of...) is an INTF. My wife's closest friend is an ISTJ. Maybe there's something to Meyers Briggs. Possibly will learn about the other personalities. The ISTJ makes sense (equally and logical ethical but boring). INFJ (almost as logical...)