Last night:

The lanes broke down the last game, and I just couldn’t string strikes together. Still a nice series. The one non-strike in the second game was a 7-pin a little light in the pocket. The first two shots had been high, and the 4-7 fell late, so I moved in a board. Moved back half a board for the rest of the game. Dammit. So close.

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Tonight, it was all Evan. He (and his parents) were at the bowling alley watching most of the first two games.

It’s my new high series, and dammit it shoulda been better. 🙂 In the first two games I threw one bad ball each (the 8 counts), and the rest of the non-strikes were all ten pins in the pocket. Still, I’m absolutely thrilled with it, of course. I only won the sidepot for the last game. Someone beat me by 5 pins the second, and the first wasn’t close. My team swept all four points. The third game I finished with ten strikes in a row, and we won by 3 pins.

Going into the night, I knew I needed a 715 series to get my average for the season up to 200 in this league. It’s now 200.4. I can bring both Monday and Tuesday up to 200 with an 864 (4) and 617 series next time out.

Goodnight.

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I guess I’m starting to get to the point now where I don’t have to post or keep track of each one of these:

My team only took one point out of four.

The previous two days weren’t bad, but weren’t great. 829 (4) on Monday, and 589 Tuesday. In the Tuesday league, I needed a 606 to bring my average up to 200 for the season. Instead, I now need a 617 next week, which I can do.

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Last weekend, I actually went back to Chumash to play some poker, and made some money. Did I write up a nice report? Of course not. Not that there’s much to write besides boring some hand histories, and how nice it is to have music (on my Pearl) at places I don’t bring my iPod. I played 5/10 NL ($300-$500), thinking it was 3/5 NL (but still $300-$500) when I sat down, but staying anyway. Was up almost $700 at one point (photoblog image), but finished up $405. I really need to get back into the habit of actually going there from time to time.

I’ve been messing around with the data that comes out of Frames, which has basically every game I’ve bowled for over two years now. Early results are here, which at the moment just has every series listed, but eventually I want to make it filterable/sortable/searchable. With cool charts and pocket/spare/pinfall details. Why? Why not. This week wasn’t quite as good as last week, but still solid with an 855 (4), 613, and 611 series.

I’ve been playing MLB2K7 on the Xbox 360 a lot lately. It’s a fun game, and has me more than ready for baseball season to actually start again. Last night, I played my first few games online, against Ryan. He hasn’t played much, and the hitting takes a lot of getting used to. I beat him the first game, but he won the second. In my defense, I played the second game as the Royals. Mets (road) opener: 18 days!

I got an R4DS for my DS Lite. It’s nice. Now, I have all 8 games that I own on a single (free after rebate!) 1GB MicroSD card. Sadly, I had to resort to downloading the ROMs from eDonkey, because I have no way to get them off of the DS game cards, and I lost my save games, but it’s worth it. Combined with the BSE skin, I just throw the DS in my bag, and don’t need a case for any accessories or anything. I can just throw the charger in my cable stable, and I’m all set.

Tomorrow, assuming the weather cooperates, I’m flying to NJ. Evan’s first birthday is Saturday. I leave Santa Barbara at around 6:30 tomorrow night, and get in Saturday morning at around 6:30. Then I leave Sunday night at 6 and get in around midnight. 18 hours of traveling, and I’ll be there a half hour short of 36 hours. Fun! It’s worth it, though, cause.. well, this.

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Monday:

685 over the first three. So close to 700. Stupid pocket 8-10 split in the 9th frame of the third game cost me that one. And one more pin anywhere in there cost me a 900, but I’m still happy with the series. Took 3 outta my four points against someone who shot 228-255-278-201. I won the first game by a few pins with handicap, and lost the third one.

Tuesday:

Needed a 227 the last game for a 700 series, but left two pocket splits (4-9, 7-10), and just didn’t carry well or throw the ball particularly well. Still, 653 isn’t bad. My team only took 1.5 outta 4 points, though.

Wednesday:

700! My third 700 series in as many months. Before this year, I’d thrown exactly two. Now I have three this year, with a lot of time to go. The only disappointment in this series is the one open frame. I really want to throw a clean series at some point. Stupid ten pin.

Overall this week: 2259 pins over 10 games. Not bad at all.

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I have no excuse for why I haven’t really posted anything here for a while. As usual, a bunch of stuff to say, no motivation to do it.

First, I have started off my BlackBerry programming with two applications for the Pearl: AutoLock, which automatically activates the keyguard when the display idle timer kicks in to turn off the screen, and SoftReset which simply provides an easy way to reset the device without requiring a battery pull. They’re both free (but I take donations!) and can be found here: BlackBerry Software. Now that I’ve got things figured out, I’m definitely going to get started on some poker results tracking software soon.

Second… I have soft water at home! It rules. No more calcium deposits in the shower, in the sink, on the dishes, and shaving is soooo much more comfortable. Photoblog image here.

Third: 6 days until Pitchers and Molinas (er.. catchers)! 8 days before the Mets staff has to report.

Enough with the counting. Bowling has continued to go fairly well for me this year, though I did have a few off nights (503 over three games, 701 over four games), last night I had another good series:

Two months, two 700s. I’ll take that. Still looking for another honor score (298, 299, 300, 800, or 11 in a row), though. Also, had this a few weeks ago:

I don’t often throw 900 over four games, though I’m sure I’ve done it a few times in the past. Very happy about it. The Palm Z22 is holding up very well for recording my bowling scores with Frames. The lower resolution doesn’t bother me at all for what I’m using it for, and the battery life is terrific. This week I plugged it in for the first time since I started using it at the bowling alley. That’s almost a month without a recharge.

I want an LED mooninite. I may have to resort to making my own. Might be fun. I’ll leave off with this video of a government agency trying to track down the mooninite terrorists:

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Bowling in 2007 got off to a pretty good start for me:

My third ever sanctioned 700 series. Nowhere to go but down, now. Also, threw 12 strikes in a row between the end of the second game and beginning of the third, but that doesn’t get me anything. Still, pretty happy with my start to the year. Hopefully, I can continue the good bowling tomorrow. I predict a nice 503. 🙂

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Last weekend, I went to lovely Bakersfield and 108 degree heat… to go bowling. It was the California State Bowling Tournament. I didn’t do so well in the tournament, shooting 569 and 564 in the singles and doubles events, and then 514 in the team event the next day. The lanes were tougher than they have been at Zodo’s, but that’s no excuse. I should be able to adjust. I finally did figure out the shot the third game of the team event, and managed to break 200 that game, so you can get an idea how bad the first two were. I had a good time, despite the terrible bowling.

There was on bright spot, which was the Masters qualifier. It’s a scratch tournament, with qualifying chances every Saturday until the week before the event. At the time of this posting, I’m number 31 on the qualifying list. It’s going to be cutting it very close for actually qualifying. I’m pretty much dead money in the tournament anyway, but it would be fun.

Except I’d have to go back to Bakersfield.

Saturday night, after the Masters qualifier, I went to play some live poker. With the help of the free wireless internet connection in the hotel, we found Golden West Casino only a few miles away. It was a pretty nice room, and most importantly, well air conditioned. They had a bunch of limit games, and 1/2 ($100max) and 3/5 ($300max) NL games going. I got on both NL lists, and ended up getting a 1/2 seat first. The game was decent, if a little slow. Trying to loosen things up a little, I straddle the third or fourth time I’m UTG. A few people limp in, and I bump it to $14. I get one caller from the cutoff or button. I bet the Q33 flop, and push all-in on the 7 turn, and get called. I tell him he’s good if he’s got a 3, and turn over my straddled aces. He shows 8s, and I river an ace for good measure.

I left the game up around $75, after getting rivered by a 2 outer in a $220 or so pot and rebuying. Not a bad few hours of poker.

Since being back, I’ve bowled twice more, shooting 681 (over 3) Monday, and 842 (over 4) on my birthday Tuesday. I’m 27 (hammer!) for a whole year. In July, including the awful three series at the state tournament (but not the midnight drunken bowling at the Orleans in Vegas), I’m averaging 210.8 over 36 games. I’m pretty damn happy with that.

A bunch of us in IRC were talking about music we were listening to, and the result of the conversation was that I created a WPBT last.fm group. If you’re a poker blogger and use last.fm, go join! And dammit, brdweb there’s nothing wrong with Billy Joel. He’s awesome.

One last thing: In preparation for my trip to Europe later this year, I got a new toy for my camera. A ballhead tripod mount (BH-40 LR) and L-Plate (B20D-L) from Really Right Stuff. They kick ass. Pictures in the gallery.

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The last game sucked, but a nice series anyway. They’re putting out a real easy shot over the summer, it seems.

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Well, since bowling is now (temporarily) in the title of the blog, I might as well write about it some more. League bowling again last night:

Damn splits in the third game. Still, plenty happy with the series. Four games again tonight, and then 9 over the weekend in Bakersfield at the California State Bowling Championships.

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