Court Fools

I don't think this ever made it onto the blog so far, which is sort of surprising because I think I have told everyone I know, but I am working on what could be called a "TV show" except for the fact that it will never be on TV. The whole thing started as an idea about a tennis-related parody of Entourage (how most of my good ideas start) and then slowly morphed into and idea of its own. I've been working on the thing for something in the neighborhood of a year now and have yet to produce an actual episode (though I have enough pages to make several) of them.

I named the show Court Fools. At the moment I am just going to assume that that is not completely stupid and just let it be. In a nutshell, it's about a young WTA player, Jordan Haal, and her coach, trainer, practice partner, friends, etc. It's supposed to be frivolous and goofy in an Entourage-ish kind of way (not a Scrubs-ish) kind of way, and I should probably admit right now that quite a lot of the coach's best lines are things that Luke K has said at some point.

So I've been working on the pilot today and am about halfway done. The way I determined the amount of time I've written script for so far was to read the whole thing out loud and time myself. So right now, I have something in the neighborhood of 10 minutes of talk. Plus theme songs and montages and I'd say I'm about halfway there.

When you see it on Showtime, you'll know that you heard it here first.

A New Record

Hi all. It's been over 2 months this time, which may be a new record for me for not posting. I'm going to call that my summer vacation, even though they weren't quite synchronized.

The tennis hasn't exactly panned out as I would have wanted. I'm doing physical therapy for what turned out not to be my knee or hip but actually my back. I'll be fine soon enough (I hope) but it's been sorta tough in the meantime.

Here are some interesting things that have happened:

Internship with Change that Works.
National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist.
Got a game off Maria V today.
Did I have my permit last time I wrote? Well I do now.
In the same vein did I tell you I got a 5 on the AP Spanish exam? Well I did.
I broke a racquet at Academy Camp but it was mostly an accident.

Other than that I have mostly just been posting on Twitter and doing homework.

Goals

So, as I reported yesterday, Richard Gasquet's suspension has been served and he is free to return to competition. If he ever tests positive for cocaine again he will be suspended for life. Also, I definitely mentioned the fact that Rafael Nadal's seemingly ridiculous and/or impossible comments about "if you kiss a girl who's taken cocaine" turned out to be exactly what happened. According to the official report, Gasquet was "on the balance of probability, contaminated with cocaine by Pamela". This strikes me as extra-amusing because I watched Borat yesterday and I'm picturing them saying it "Pa-MEL-ah".

I'm nearly done with my driving hours. I have 3 and a half left: 2 today and the other 1.5 tomorrow. There's a requirement that one of your parents has to be in the car for at least 30 minutes during one of your driving times, so I'll be driving my dad around for half an hour today. A bunch of my friends have told me that they get really nervous with their parents in the car, but in general I think I'm a pretty good driver, so unless I get dramatically worse it should be fine. I don't think I mentioned it, but on Monday the instructor let me drive on the highway, so I must be making progress.

I'm looking up this week's rankings right now. This is the first time in a long time that I've actually been excited to see where I ended up this week. Now that I've actually won a match in the 18s it becomes fun to check again.

And wouldn't you know it? It's not up yet. Over the winter this seemed to happen every time that I had had a good weekend, so I'm used to it.

In addition to my other ranking goals, I have now have a new one: Get in the top 40 so that I can get a discount from the apparel company Athletic DNA, although I myself have none. In order of attainability, my goals are as such:

-Top 100 by end of September.

-Back to where I was in the 16s (#62) by the end of the year.

-Top 50 by March.

-32 or better for sectionals next year.

So I suppose being in the top 40 comes in between those last 2. 

Making it to sectionals seems a little far-fetched, but most of what I've accomplished at this point would have seemed pretty far-fetched not too long ago.

AP grades should be coming in the mail any day now. As I said before, I'd be thrilled with a 2 in Calculus, but I think I did pretty well on Spanish. Hopefully if you average out the two grades it'll come out to something respectable.

That's just about all I have to say. I have another one of those 4-9 days in Brunswick this afternoon/evening, so look for my frequent twitter updates.

Stolen from the Ticker

I have 2 pro-tennis happenings to comment on today, both of which came from Tennis.com's ticker.

First, Richard Gasquet's suspension was reduced to 2 and a half months, and is now over. I checked my archives and found that I somehow didn't mention this when it happened, which is odd, because I distinctly remember telling practically everyone I know about Rafa Nadal's comments. Anyway, better late than never. A couple of months ago, Richard Gasquet was found to have tested positive for cocaine. The whole thing caused kind of a rumpus because only a small amount of the drug was found in his system. Rafael Nadal, who has been friends with Gasquet since they were kids, gave his full support with quotes like these:

"You know what the world is like today. When you go to a party, anything can happen these day. If you kiss a girl who's taken cocaine, anything can happen, and that's the truth."

That is the part that I can't believe I didn't blog about. At the time, I wondered if it was even possible to test positive for cocaine after kissing someone who has taken it, not to mention how Rafa Nadal would know. It seemed sort of ridiculous that this might have been that kind of freak accident but...

"...he was able to demonstrate on the balance of probabilities how the cocaine entered his system (through inadvertant contamination in a nightclub the night before his schedule match), and that, while he was at fault in exposing himself to the risk of such contamination, that fault was not significant."

So, according the the official report, that implausible kissing-at-a-club scenario appears to be exactly what happened. I'm glad that Gasquet turns out not to be using drugs, and I still hope that he lives up to his potential, but my biggest question is here is how did Rafa know? The obvious answer is that he was at this club also, though I'm not sure how he would have known that the girl in question had done cocaine. I'm probably better of just leaving the whole thing alone.

The other story, which is much less consequential, is that Roger Federer visited the Liverpool squad, who were staying at a hotel in Basel yesterday. That's not all that interesting in itself, but I'd like to reprint some of the comments in Federer's website's account of their meeting:

"Roger... apologized for interrupting their lunch before agreeing to pictures with each and every player."

So apparently he didn't tell them he was coming, although they didn't appear to mind. It's entirely possible that some of those pictures are available of Federer's website, but they are not in the public section and I can't bring myself to become a member.

I went to a midnight screening of the new Harry Potter movie last night (this morning), which was much more fun than I was expecting. I got home at around 3.15 in the morning, which made me feel cool. My dad called me at 12.30 today, at which time I was asleep. And I believe that is the latest I've ever slept, so hooray for me and my new personal laziness record!

So connected

Right now, I am talking to 3 people on AIM and writing on my blog. I am so 2009. Also I have posted on twitter like 4 times today. I am kind of a loser, but I am also kind of great.

It's kind of hard to talk to people and blog at the same time. I'm not really used to having more than one buddy online so this is a new challenge.

Tennis was kind of unremarkable today. I did slightly better than usual at not being way to excited to tell people that I didn't lose in the first round. I was just like "Hey Luke, so, I made the semis the weekend." That might sound a little forward, but it's not so bad when you know my history of declarations like "I AM IN THE TOP 100" or "I NOW HAVE FIVE HUNDRED POINTS."

All this multi-tasking is getting to be too much, so I'll go ahead and end it here. Bye!

75 is 75 more than 0

As I had already said, I was in Nashua for the day yesterday. Wait, what? The whole day? Not just 1 hour while I get my butt kicked and then leave for Bertucci's? Why yes! Because I actually managed to win a match yesterday!

I lost in the semifinal afterward, but it was close-ish and I didn't break anything, so I'd say that was a job well done. Jordan F reached the final before falling to the top seed today, so I guess Maine represented pretty well considering there were only 2 of us. I have some time on my hands, so I've calculated the records and winning percentages of each state this weekend:

Georgia (1 player): 2-0, 100%
Maine (2 players): 3-2, 60%
Massachusetts (27 players): 25-17, 59.5%
New Hampshire (6 players): 3-6, 33.3%
Rhode Island (1 player): 0-1, 0%

So, Maine was second after Georgia in winning percentages. Although if I had to pick a winner I'd go for Massachusetts, because there were more of them than players in any individual event, and they still had almost the same percentage as a state with only 2 representatives. Hats off to the girl from Georgia, though, because the scores indicate that she took the g16s by storm.

Didn't end up posting on twitter, because they seem to have changed the wireless password, and I'm kind of afraid of the tournament director so I didn't ask.

Anyway, after my second match I got to go swimming, which was pretty fantastic, and then I went to the enormous Nashua mall, which is quite an experience. And, I came out of the day with 75 points, which might not be very much (at all), but it is 75 more than zero. There are currently 10 players in my division with 75 points, ranked 182-191, so next week I'll be somewhere around there.

It's a start.

Advice

I forgot to mention this earlier and am too lazy to edit my previous post:

The Nashua tournament this weekend is on clay. Clay is like algebra: I try my best to be enthusiastic, and I really do wish I liked it, but in the end I don't see the point because there's something else that suits me much better. (Those somethings else are the hard courts and the Calculus, by the way.) Anyway, I'm getting a little sick of clay but don't have much choice.

You all remember Luke K, right? My much-quoted tennis coach? His response:

"Why do you keep playing these ones on clay? Find yourself some hard courts so you can win something!"