Octocrook
08-23-2002, 09:02 AM
(another to add on the weird things about you list...I'm almost always infatuated with at least 1 game, usually 2). So don't mind me for a while here...I need to get this joy off my chest so I can sleep.
It's funny how a childhood passion can become something to seriously consider. For a while, I thought I could seriously pursue playing chess professionally, but in the end didn't feel like putting the time and effort into becoming as good as I can be. Same with tennis. Both of em I started to play at around 5 or 6 years old. In chess, I started being able to easily beat most adults I played when I was about 10, and I won tourneys n stuff in the past years, and in tennis, since I was about 14 or 15, I've been able to serve a tennis ball 120+ MPH, and I'm a pretty good player in other regards too. Still today, they are 2 games I love. I'm pretty much addicted to playing chess still, and I still love hittin the tennis courts now and then, but it turns out that a different game, sorta hiding in the bush for a long time, is finally starting to emerge: bowling.
I still remember bowling a 60 when I was about 5. For about 10 years after I first bowled, my bowling was limited to at most 3 times a year. Up until I started bowling regularly every week, and especially until I got my own ball, I was ecstatic with getting a 100. Now I'm yawning after bowling over 2 and a half times that score.
Well, after my highest bowling game (257) that I bowled tonight pretty much felt like nothing (no jumping for joy or anything), I'm beginning to wonder whether I'm better at bowling than chess, tennis, and canasta combined. Previously I thought I was probably better at canasta than any other game (think about winning 85% of the time in ANY card game considering card games involve some luck), but now I seriously doubt it. Only 4 months of bowling with a hook and I average about 195 and games even up into the 250s are starting to come and go already. My game tonight was easily my best game ever, for many reasons. I mean first off, only 2 mistakes the whole entire game. The game was:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
X | X | 8/| X | X | X | 9/| X | X | XXX
After the last strike, sure I was happy...it was my new high game. There was still that empty feeling though....as if I wasn't bowling any better than I normally do. I had this same feeling when I bowled a 256 last Tuesday, my first game over 250 and 16 pts higher than my best game ever up to that point.
Funny thing is, after that 257 tonight, I started a new game with a strike (thus being 6 in a row counting the last 5 of the 257 game), and when I missed the next strike, I did my usual stomping on the ground, as I haven't gotten more than 6 strikes in a row yet, heheh. Anyways, I'm gonna give it one more year before I even think about joining the pro circuit....after all, you pretty much need a 200 book average to join it, and I'm not to that point yet, although I'm skyrocketing there. If I were to continue to improve how I have been the last 4 months, I would have a 260 average next year...and yet I'll settle with maybe 205, lol. Funny thing is that ever since I started high school, I have gradually shied away from making a career out of any games. I used to want to create video games when I was a kid, and now that I know how much work goes into a game and how long it takes to make one, I doubt I could ever participate in anything besides the music aspect. In college, I've started to lean toward Computational Science major (math with emphasis on programming), even though I hardly see myself enjoying a job of that type...I'm just good at both of those things so far. So now that bowling is possibly looking like an option, it seems so weird. I mean I wonder at what point someone makes the decision to play professional sports full time. Same thing with abandoning a regular job for working full time for your own business. I'm just not sure I could ever take such a risk.
Lastly, I wanna point out an incredible irony. April 19th (my birthday) is when I started my "beta" hook...I couldn't do it accurately yet, and if I bowled a game full of it, 90% of the time I wouldn't break 100. Near the end of that league (ended in late May), I started getting just good enough to bowl with it a little. One of the guys in the leage, who averages about 180 (and apparently used to average about 200) was telling me that it was hurting his eyes how awful my sorta fake hook was. He said "You can't ever hope to become good with a hook unless you get a ball especially made for it." He was talking down to me on this matter...as if I would be a failure at bowling if I didn't follow his advice. Well, Mr. Gene, HA HA HA HA HA. I average more than you now, and I've been bowling hook for a whopping 4 months! And I've got about 20 more years of life ahead of me than you! Seriously, I can't stand when people don't like unconventionality. People laughed at the way I held my pool cue when I was little....before I ran the table on them and had the last laugh. People used to laugh at the opening I used in lightning chess before I started beating them 10 games in a row with ease. NEVER judge a book by its cover, and always be open to the possibility that you don't know everything.
Ok I'm done. Time for beddo. <img src=smilies/sleep.gif>
<P ID="signature"><center><img SRC=http://images.auctionworks.com/hi/15/15157/newyork.jpg>
Ian's mom will now be satisfied...</center></P>
It's funny how a childhood passion can become something to seriously consider. For a while, I thought I could seriously pursue playing chess professionally, but in the end didn't feel like putting the time and effort into becoming as good as I can be. Same with tennis. Both of em I started to play at around 5 or 6 years old. In chess, I started being able to easily beat most adults I played when I was about 10, and I won tourneys n stuff in the past years, and in tennis, since I was about 14 or 15, I've been able to serve a tennis ball 120+ MPH, and I'm a pretty good player in other regards too. Still today, they are 2 games I love. I'm pretty much addicted to playing chess still, and I still love hittin the tennis courts now and then, but it turns out that a different game, sorta hiding in the bush for a long time, is finally starting to emerge: bowling.
I still remember bowling a 60 when I was about 5. For about 10 years after I first bowled, my bowling was limited to at most 3 times a year. Up until I started bowling regularly every week, and especially until I got my own ball, I was ecstatic with getting a 100. Now I'm yawning after bowling over 2 and a half times that score.
Well, after my highest bowling game (257) that I bowled tonight pretty much felt like nothing (no jumping for joy or anything), I'm beginning to wonder whether I'm better at bowling than chess, tennis, and canasta combined. Previously I thought I was probably better at canasta than any other game (think about winning 85% of the time in ANY card game considering card games involve some luck), but now I seriously doubt it. Only 4 months of bowling with a hook and I average about 195 and games even up into the 250s are starting to come and go already. My game tonight was easily my best game ever, for many reasons. I mean first off, only 2 mistakes the whole entire game. The game was:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
X | X | 8/| X | X | X | 9/| X | X | XXX
After the last strike, sure I was happy...it was my new high game. There was still that empty feeling though....as if I wasn't bowling any better than I normally do. I had this same feeling when I bowled a 256 last Tuesday, my first game over 250 and 16 pts higher than my best game ever up to that point.
Funny thing is, after that 257 tonight, I started a new game with a strike (thus being 6 in a row counting the last 5 of the 257 game), and when I missed the next strike, I did my usual stomping on the ground, as I haven't gotten more than 6 strikes in a row yet, heheh. Anyways, I'm gonna give it one more year before I even think about joining the pro circuit....after all, you pretty much need a 200 book average to join it, and I'm not to that point yet, although I'm skyrocketing there. If I were to continue to improve how I have been the last 4 months, I would have a 260 average next year...and yet I'll settle with maybe 205, lol. Funny thing is that ever since I started high school, I have gradually shied away from making a career out of any games. I used to want to create video games when I was a kid, and now that I know how much work goes into a game and how long it takes to make one, I doubt I could ever participate in anything besides the music aspect. In college, I've started to lean toward Computational Science major (math with emphasis on programming), even though I hardly see myself enjoying a job of that type...I'm just good at both of those things so far. So now that bowling is possibly looking like an option, it seems so weird. I mean I wonder at what point someone makes the decision to play professional sports full time. Same thing with abandoning a regular job for working full time for your own business. I'm just not sure I could ever take such a risk.
Lastly, I wanna point out an incredible irony. April 19th (my birthday) is when I started my "beta" hook...I couldn't do it accurately yet, and if I bowled a game full of it, 90% of the time I wouldn't break 100. Near the end of that league (ended in late May), I started getting just good enough to bowl with it a little. One of the guys in the leage, who averages about 180 (and apparently used to average about 200) was telling me that it was hurting his eyes how awful my sorta fake hook was. He said "You can't ever hope to become good with a hook unless you get a ball especially made for it." He was talking down to me on this matter...as if I would be a failure at bowling if I didn't follow his advice. Well, Mr. Gene, HA HA HA HA HA. I average more than you now, and I've been bowling hook for a whopping 4 months! And I've got about 20 more years of life ahead of me than you! Seriously, I can't stand when people don't like unconventionality. People laughed at the way I held my pool cue when I was little....before I ran the table on them and had the last laugh. People used to laugh at the opening I used in lightning chess before I started beating them 10 games in a row with ease. NEVER judge a book by its cover, and always be open to the possibility that you don't know everything.
Ok I'm done. Time for beddo. <img src=smilies/sleep.gif>
<P ID="signature"><center><img SRC=http://images.auctionworks.com/hi/15/15157/newyork.jpg>
Ian's mom will now be satisfied...</center></P>