I played three matches yesterday against three different people and won all three. It felt pretty good, especially since I had never played one of them before (he was a Canadian-born English teacher, working in China). He also started playing about a year before me, and was taught in what’s considered the table tennis country of the world. Knowing that he was using an anti-spin rubber gave me an advantage though; I didn’t have to worry about his spin, and since I focus on speed and placement, his rubber became pointless. I also have less respect for people who use the anti-spin rubbers, because they generally rely on the paddle to do the work for them, instead of properly learning how to counter spin. My habitual nervousness when facing a new opponent wasn’t there.

I also won against one of the people I use to have great difficulty beating. He had a new paddle, with small ball-bearings imbedded along the rim. When one shakes it, the paddle sounds like a baby rattle. Apparently, it’s supposed to prevent reverberation, but I don’t understand the point. I count on feeling reverberation through my handle to give me feedback on where I’m hitting.

I also beat one of my long time opponents, although it’s more of an empty victory because I’ve learned his tricks and styles, so I know how to counter them. I won based on vitallity overcoming his experience, not skill overcoming skill. It was interesting to find out that his paddle has a hollow handle with a weight attached to a screw assembly in it. The weight can be shifted up and down through the handle to change the centre of gravity of the blade.

Still, it’s good to know that I’m improving. I can learn at the table now, in the middle of a match instead of afterwards.

Aaron has his thing for the snowboarding girls, the ones with the pigtails on the mountain who support the Canadian gear companies like West 49, Nick has his for longboarding girls, Jeff for the hockey girls, and Trolley for the…girls. I think the whole idea is hilarious, and chuckle to myself when I read about people like Alexandra Kosteniuk, the attractive Russian girl who became Grandmaster at the age of 13, in the papers. I always imagine chess dorks swooning over some spectacular move she makes that’s beyond my comprehension.

Then I saw Biba Golic face someone in the 2003 Killerspin competition, and realized that I’m just a table tennis dork. It’s not so much the fact that she’s a professional table tennis player, but the fact that she plays aggressively, almost unconservatively. It’s like Jonathan and his thing for drummer girls who play with an aggro-ape stance, instead of the dainty, elbows-raised posture that so many female drummers seem to have. There’s something about a girl who plays like a guy, whether it’s table tennis, drums, or even games. This is going on the updated list soon.

Table tennis dorks. I wonder if I’m the first.

A weekend of relaxation and intoxication.

The first time that I’ve known Pat to be Jen-less, he calls me up, wants to hang out. Fucking cool. We go for the breakfast special at a Greek Souvlaki house, he takes the sausage, I take the bacon. After, we head to the table tennis club (something I hoped he’d do for a while now) for a few matches. He beats me 5–1, and I find out that he’s running on three hours of sleep. He goes home to run some errands, I go home to sleep. He comes back here to meet up with me and Trolley, after cooking some burgers on his grill and putting together fixings, corn-on-the-cob, and pasta salad. We eat, watch some Harvey Birdman, play games for eight hours. Part and crash.

Today, wake up with my cat stretched out on my pillow. Trolley and I head to the table tennis club, play for an hour, head downtown to buy a few albums. The weather being so nice, we go to the Highlander with their distracting uniforms, and sit down for a pint on the patio. Clink. Come back, and I get to organize while listening to my new Modest Mouse album.

Don’t want to lose this feeling.

I ended up losing all my matches yesterday. Out of 18 games, I won three. Two matches should have been easy wins, and one was tied at 2 games, 12 points. I get too nervous when I’m playing new people. I’m not quite used to the entire idea of competing, especially for rank, especially with other people depending on me. My teammates told me that it was noticeably affecting my performance because it seemed as if my shoulders were stiff and I was trying too hard. I’ll be accustomed to everything eventually.

I have another five hour league meet today. My team is matched up against two other teams of intermediate players. When I first played in the league at the beginning of the year I had no hope of beating these people, but now I’m not sure. I think that if I can concentrate well enough, and play smart enough, I’ll have a good chance. The problem is that being nervous always puts me at a disadvantage; I usually only win when I’m calm and focused. I’ve only played two of the seven players, so there’ll definitely be some styles that I’m not used to, and that’s what scares me. Either way, it’ll be good experience.