Previous Blogs

• 2007
• 2006
• 2005

8/14/08 I work in a Twilight Zone Episode
I sometimes get sucked into the Twilight Zone Marathons they have every once in a while. Karen loves it and I find a couple interesting. One of them, A Game of Pool, seems very close to my job this week. A new IT guy started, he's my manager, and I've been showing him around this week. We've also talked about history, how things are setup, and of course our co-workers.

Can read about the episode on wikipedia, but for me it's a new hot shot IT guy that wants to prove himself and maybe go head to head a bit. Despite the history and stories (warnings) he seems more determined to make things better. Good. I've already peaked down that road and as I've beaten to death here it's a dead end.

So like "Fats" I'm sweating not because I'm of afriad losing, I'm sweating because I might win. I've chased being the best and I've chased the idea "no one is better than me." I know both are not true. There's only a couple of balls left on the table and I want to go Fishing. I need to really get ready and know where I'm going. My inital guess is either 12/08 or 06/31/09.

08/10/08 Olympics and Racquetball?
Karen and I have been watching the Olympics as I'm sure people all over the World are doing. The Opening Ceremony was just awesome! What an Honor to be there. Been watching Beach Volleyball, Swimming, and some crazy gymnastics. Anyway as you can guess throughout the whole program I'm complaining that there's no racquetball.

It's not like the technology isn't there. If they can slow down some guy whirling and twisting through the air. They can also down a racquetball. I wonder who pissed off the Olympic Committee on Racquetball. Shame too, think USA can put together a great team.

Took my camera to the Middlesex County Fair to take pics of Jason, etc. Saw some of Jamesburg's Bravest mounting a flag, so I thought it'll be a cool shot and appropriate for this entry. Camera is really amazing, those guys were up there! Go World!

08/09/08 Not just belly-aching about Rutgers
A lot of Union people were up in arms at Rutgers this week related to my department. An article published by the Home News Tribune with pictures says more than I ever could.

Before Rutgers I worked for a small company doing similar computer stuff. I remember working on the HR person's computer when the President of the Company came in and told the HR Manager not to let another employee leave for another department. Well the Company and the President eventually went out of business. I really don't get people that think they are above their employees or that people are disposable. Without people running a company, there is no company.

08/05/08 Mental Warfare at Cook
I've been a little merciless at Cook lately every time I step on the court I'm looking for a win. I guess with everything going on with my failing career, my improved business outlook, and going after a financial plan. I have a bit more confidence, don't get me wrong still living paycheck to paycheck which is sad, but at least I know where I am and what I need to do. Same with racquetball I guess, I know what the end result needs to be and as a match progresses I see opportunities to help get there.

Anyway my buddy, One Lee, starting using some mental warfare on me and trying to psyche me out last Friday. It was working pretty well and all of the sudden I felt a shift in my attitude. Suddenly I'm hitting the ball harder, expelling more energy, and getting more nervous. I even admitted after a rally "that was hard!" One Lee was up-front getting to everything and Chris was in the back court getting everything else. I was able to hit one good DTL kill, but it felt like I just climbed a mountain to do it.

Still amazes me how messed up things can get mentally if we let it. So hopefully I can piss-off One Lee to keep doing it until it kind of rolls off.

08/05/08 The "Edge" Comment
Aimee's been keeping one of her butter-knife "edge" blogs again from Ireland. Just kidding Aimee. It's cool that she posts pictures and stuff and it's a glimpse of Racquetball I'll probably never get to experience. Maybe if Jason (3) or Matthew (due in December) get that good to be on a USA Team. I'll be proud of them playing a sport I love so much. I'll never put pressure on them to play racquetball exclusively unless they want to. Whatever they play or do I hope they have the passion and don't waste time second-guessing themselves as their old man has done.

Jason talks about it and we pull out racquets, goggles, and just start throwing balls around. Once it gets cooler I'm taking him Outdoors just to have him run around and maybe start that fore/backhand off right.

Anyway back to Aimee's blogs, I miss the inner-workings (what I called edge) a bit. The feeling of what is going on, basically I want to be told a story. While the text book definition is cute...We all have an audience with expectations. So good luck Aimee and go USA!

07/29/08 Cashflow 101: My Wife got out of the Rat Race!
Yeah I know off mission. We played with my Father-in-Law on Sunday while Jason was taking a nap. It was her second time playing the game and she got out of the Rat Race after me. I think I was more excited than she was and she was pretty happy about it. My Father-in-Law well...didn't have a chance really. Besides not having many opportunities, the chances he had were squandered buying ten shares of stock here, buying a stock at high price, and paying off debt instead of savings for investments. So it was an eye-opener for me...the game is not always easy and reflects how we deal with money in real life. He never liked Investing and neither did his Accounting mentor.

After the game, he said now you can tell people you beat a CPA. That's never been the point of the game. The point is to gain some understanding about investing and help each other. I'm ecstatic my wife was able to maange her own financial statement and get out of the Rat Race. I'm starting to feel we can move in the same direction in real life, since she knows what I want to do and I can have her support.

07/26/08 My Mission Statement for Joe's New Jersey Racquetball
Been dying for some focus around here lately. I came across an old page that I took down. It covered everything and I thought WTF is this! I searched my whole site and it was linked on one page and not even racquetball. I needed something short that I can follow. Anyway I played racquetball last night (my first time all week) and saw my friend, One Lee, doing the things I used to do. Getting more students involved in the sport.

So I played with a Student who moved pretty well but had zero backhand understandable since he's only been playing a month. Then I played doubles with another student and she was also pretty new. She was pretty quick and can handle some hard shots. She just needs to learn more patience and more mechanics.

It doesn't matter how new they are or how good, they both had a passion to play the game. So that's what this Mission and site need to be about. Brining people to the game and keeping that inital passion alive. Once it goes out, it doesn't come back.

It's real easy to get caught up and write about other things in my life here (not saying I won't), but first and foremost I need to focus on other people's passion for the game and express my own to make a difference, to follow my goals, and to follow my mission.

07/23/08 Wrong Direction
Read about Mission Statements yesterday and their importance and the spirit of an entrepreneur...and pretty sure I'm heading away from all those good things. It's real easy to get focused on money. Need to keep it, need to earn it, need to make it. Instead of the challenges of building a business. That's something over the years I've lost and the answer has been right in front of my face! I don't play racquetball for the money!! I play it for the challenge. To challenge myself, my opponent, my partner. To prove I can do it with enough hard work and effort. Why not embrace the same idea for business?

"With out passion you don't have energy, with out energy you have nothing." Donald Trump.

It's been a long time that I've been passioniate about business or even to a degree racquetball. It's easy to get lost without a plan. Don't get me wrong, I still need to make assets or I'm dead in the water. It's just my focus that's been terribly wrong. Following money is not going to make me successful. Following my passions for computers, writing, and racquetball just might. A public speaking Professor at DeVRY once told me I should combine Computers and Dungeons and Dragons. Good advice to merge multiple passions together, I think they grow in intensity that way.

Bill Serafin and Mike Grab have told me that making money with racquetball is a dead-end. Well maybe and racquetball is not going to be my only business pursuit, but let's just say I like a challenge. Racquetball deserves more.

07/20/08 Developing Real Assets
Been thinking a lot about my assets both in racquetball and in business. Jon Panno stopped by Cook on Friday night to give me a couple of games. God I was thankful, since I normally don't get to play people way outside of my range. Not that some of the guys on Cook aren't any good, but there's a definite switch that gets tripped when I'm playing someone really tough and Jon is one of those people.

Jon was giving me some good advice mostly getting to center court after my serve and other stuff. After a while, he started to tell himself to shut-up. Anyway trying to focus on what he said and trying to do my own analysis took a lot of resources. One Lee and Joe were watching most of the games and Jon was showing off a little diving for some serve returns. Anyway Jon said my drive serve is pretty damn good, is varied and masked pretty well. So like a financial asset it helps put points in my pocket. Bill always said my serve was a strong A level even years ago. Jacob from Hillsborough also gave me a lot of props. So I love my drive serve but I need a few more assets out there. Relocation is a serious liability. Early Racquet Prep probably another but Jon was able to hit too many easy shots that exploited my position. So relocation is my new focus.

As for business, yeah my websites are still financial liabilities. My poetry book is probably not going to go anywhere. I love some poetry but it was my first book and my first series of poems. So hard to really believe in them, I know it's not a masterpiece or anything. It's still an asset, it represents a very personal and very important accomplishment for me both spritually and in business. My websites provide information, but are still pretty low and a far cry from Face Book, My Space, or other sites that made their owners millionaries.

So building an asset is going to be my focus well into next year. I've seen some sites offering racquetball league services for free and I'm definitely not interested in that--been there done that for over ten years. I need to create assets that generate income so I can support my family, spend my time going after dreams, and give back to racquetball and my community. I believe being rich would just be a by-product of working the right plan, investing, and building a business.

07/17/08 From all Sides
Last night, Jon Panno left me a voice mail pretending to be Robert Kiyosaki (the creator of Cashflow 101 and Author of the Rich Dad/Poor Dad) it was pretty funny. Sure he was calling to catch up and tell me about his latest blog entry about lefties. To be listed along side Cliff Swain in anything is an honor dude. Anyway, my wife in a less humorous tone says, "You think you're going to get rich playing Monopoly and Cashflow." Yeah I think Cashflow 101 will definitely show me the path. Money is just a game like everything else in life. It's kind of like doing my daily push-ups when I first started I suffered doing five. Now I'm suffering doing 14. I will learn how to use money and build a business, but like money I need to learn how to play the business game.

I reached out to Randy Harmon, a friend and former co-worker, about building a business and he gave me a bunch of resources and sites to look into. I found a PDF about building businesses in New Jersey. So need more education to put things into real action. Of course, need money and thanks to Cashflow 101 I have my own Income Statement and Balance Sheet in order. I'm also starting to have a plan. Part 1 is done which is document my current financial situation. Part 2, payoff my credit card debt (12/31/08). Part 3, Invest and increase payments on my long-term debt. Part 4, build a business. Part 5, buy rental property. Repeat process.

07/13/08 Cashflow 101 Friday
Can call it my Poker Night. Chris and Marv came over to play Cashflow 101 and we had a good time with Chinese Food and Domino's Pizza. Chris had the Airline Pilot Character, Marv a Teacher, and I had a Mechanic. Marv drew the $1 stock and took advantage with a big time purchase. Chris and I had trouble, but I was dead last in any deals and income. I started paying off debt and just bought a three bedroom two bath house to just get something going. I sold the house for a big profit in the market and was able to get out the Rat Race by buying a Arcade.

For a while, I just sulked about missing the $1 opportunity...afterward, I was glad I missed it. I found another way out of the Rat Race. Chris had one of the toughest characters and was downsized about three times. Marv got divorced like twice (lost all of his cash) on the Fast Track. I could have bought my dream and won, but bought a business instead. It was interesting and we had a good time playing. We setup another time for early August. Marv won the game.

07/09/08 ELO Calculator Posted
Well it's announced all over the place, so I won't beat it to death here. Posted my ELO Calculator today after writing it up and testing it for a few days. Originally I wanted to develop this big system around it, but realized that's going to take a while. I can work on each piece and slowly bring them all together. Getting it done and posted was most important.

07/07/08 Reflections
Traded a bunch of IM's with my friend, Mike Grab, close to the weekend. One of the things he asked me to do was go back over my blogs and see a pattern. I did and I can see a couple of reoccurring themes with my failed attempts to hit the gym (my weight), my mental toughness breakdowns, and being all over the place with technology. He also suggested I make a plan for each and be more loving and supportive of my wife. All valid points. So based on that "Power of an Hour" here's my first actions to get started now.

• My Weight
  If I take my lunch hour to hit a gym, it's mostly going to be to drill racquetball. Frank Letter told me a while back that two days is not going to cut it, but I need some core and weight training. Even though I always hated push-ups. I've been doing them since Friday. I can do them anywhere with a floor, they don't take long, and don't require equipment. I'm up to about seven. I've been increasing by one each day. Working to keep my back straight and I can probably do more, but I want to do the same amount everyday. My wife said there was a better way to do crunches, but I'll wait until she feels better.

  Figured I can cut about 1,200 grams of sugar by getting rid of my Pepsi in the morning and just taking a caffeine pill. Besides the boost, it helps me sleep more soundly for some reason. Also want to cut back on soda at dinner so my son doesn't want to keep drinking it.

• My Toughness
  Not getting the promotion at work cut me pretty deep, it sucks that I devoted nine years of my life to a dead-end job. It really has galvanized my desire to do my own business, but Rich Dad/Poor Dad really showed me something. There was a story in one of the books about two business people that wanted to provide water to a village. One guy brought buckets all day long. The other guy developed a business, gathered investors, developed a pipeline to the village. In short, I don't want to haul virtual buckets. Also realize there's a lot to learn.

  So what does that have to do with toughness? Everything. Think we carry ourselves around in everything we do, the risks we take, the things we learn. I'm pretty tired of living paycheck to paycheck and not making any real progress with my life. How can I possibly get on a court and expect to win there if I don't expect to win in other parts of my life. Mike wrote that I was very competitive true. I don't like to quit. I also don't find many people that enjoy losing, but it's through losing that I've made my greatest progress. So keep it coming.

  My plan? Keep moving forward on things and start writing to guide people to a decision about my products and services. People are not going to buy my products and services unless I believe in them and ask for a commitment. I'm not going to get a commitment unless I take the risk and ask. Not going to ask if I don't have the toughness to apply and fail.

• Technology Focus
  Over the years there's been a battle between ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, and Flash on my site. The battle is settled with PHP and MySQL winning the match, but there's been times that PHP could not do something I needed. ASP and ASP.NET are great working with XML. PHP is great for working with HTML and a MySQL database. AJAX is another piece of the puzzle since it can cross the boundary between a user's browser and the server. JavaScript can help with just about everything. Last but not least, Flash can do just about anything.

  My plan? Focus on projects that add value and keep people coming back. A lot of things on my site are so antiquated that they aren't worth fixing. I started a member area a while back and it had no substance. Login and Logout. So I would like to develop something for people to do here. Of course, there's my www.gotracquetball.com site, but I'm not quite ready with Flash yet. Still a little weak on XML and how to create dynamic text and other features I want.

• My Finances
  Running out of time this morning, so my wife and I need to curb our eating out expenses. So I'll need to learn how to Cook. One Lee, friend at work, told me it's easy. Perhaps, but I want to learn the basics. It's easy to blame my wife saying going out to eat is the problem, but it comes down a sloppy home. Clean clothes pile up and aren't put away. Dirty dishes crowd the kitchen. Efficiency is the key to anything and if starting something becomes more work than the actual project there's a problem. It's another process and I'm guilty of sneaking more computer time than actual housework and Lord knows my wife has her own excuses even before #2.

  Also been trying to end the petty arguments and work on finding solutions and being a more caring husband. Hard sometimes since we all develop habits in dealing with people. I know I have a lot of bad habits to break.

  Oh the plan, clean up, throw out, and organize about ten minutes a day. It used to be 45, but it was too much to stick to. Ten will add up. Five hours a month. Also get one of those "Cooking for Dummies" books. Normally refuse to buy them for computers, but for Cooking...Yes I'm a big dummy.

Thanks for reading and thanks Mike. Let me know if I missed anything.

07/03/08 ELO Framework (2/2)
I have the main code done for posting an ELO Calculator on my site and been fighting the urge to rush and post it. Having people enter the rankings for their players each time will get tedious very quick. So been mapping out a better way for people to login and create players, etc. It will also help with my leagues, it's easy to get impatient, but I want to do it right and expand the site.

07/03/08 Joe's Racquetball 2.0 is Getting Old (1/2)
Learned a bunch of new stuff since I created this 2,0 version, so every time I work on the site I'm kind of bored with it. There's more things it can be doing, but not sure it's worth rebuilding everything from scratch or just taking some of the new ideas to my derelict wwww.gotracquetball.com site. I'm itching for that one too, but I got one chance to start off right. I want it to be Web 2.0 from day one. Web 2.0 just means more interactive with more community content.

07/01/08 Leverage (3/3)
Leverage has been a word mentioned more than once in the series of books I've been reading lately. I've also seen both sides of financial leverage, mostly the negative side of consumer debt and thanks to Cashflow I can see the leverage of good debt working for me. Bad debt is simply taking money from your pocket and good debt helps put money in. I also see the wisdom in not going for it alone. I've been keeping score and going for it alone is not working. I'm weak in a lot of areas essential to business. I'm also weak in a lot of areas in racquetball. So need to stop being stupid and work with people that can fill in the gaps. I know I can fill in the technical gaps for others as well.

Like I noticed Tina finishing a lot of third shots in our games that's a good compliment since my serve can often force a weak return that she can put away.

07/01/08 Slump or Overweight? (2/3)
Last couple of times on the court have been complete washes. I mean Hillsborough practice with Tina was off. I thought it was too much yard work or taking the liner out my dead pool that did me in, but later that week at Rutgers...ooof just sucked. I spilled my guts to Chris in the parking lot about my job and a close call my wife and I had with her pregnancy. Yep we're expecting #2 around Thanksgiving. So reading Rich Dad/Poor Dad and playing Cashflow is showing me how addicted I am to my paycheck, a questionable paycheck at best. My other income prospects aren't turning out so good. So been a little preoccupied, I suppose. So when Mike Grab asked me what happened to my blog...I thought might as well dump.

Don't have a scale, but I know I'm a little too heavy and eating M&Ms and other crap because I'm burning the candle at both ends is adding up. Also playing racquetball once a week is setting up a downward spiral I need to break before the season starts.

07/01/08 Cashflow 101 2nd Round (1/3)
I had to pull out all the stops to get my wife to play Cashflow with me. At first, she didn't want to play. Then she started to like it, but she had some bad luck and got downsized a couple of times and wasn't prepared. She also kept taking loans from the bank to float her along. Meanwhile, I kept some money aside and found the $1 stock card, bought about 2,000 shares, and it went to $40. Sold, paid off some debt, bought some property, and bought a big deal that put my passive income over the top. I played the Teacher and got out a lot easier than the first time.

Personally been mapping out my Income Statement and Balance Sheet for my own finances and we can be doing so much better than we are. Going out to eat or ordering food is crushing us. So been trying to curb that. Been looking at some investments, been making some mistakes, and learning as much as I can. Mistakes and Risks I can do all day. Eventually I'll minimize both.

06/24/08 Scaling Back
I've been pushing a little too much lately with Cashflow 101, my Web Design, Storms of a Soul, work, and even Racquetball. I guess I'm panicking about my job coming to an end. Nothing has been said or anything, but too many people (5) have been eliminated from my Department. So I do my job, get paid, reduce expenses, and save, and look to expand my means elsewhere. Getting all worked up and writing about it on my sites is not helping me achieve my goals and probably scaring a lot of people off. What will happen at Rutgers is out of my control and has been decided about a year ago. It'll just be a question of who hits the button first.

Not long ago, Racquetball at Rutgers was my primary reason for staying there. Silly huh? I guess, I could have been in a better spot if that was really what I wanted. I know what I want and it hasn't changed since 1995. My regret is that I didn't know the things I know now back then. I read a lot of books back then too, but they didn't sink in. Back then I hardly internalized anything and was more focused on self-help books than business. I also didn't have the means to make it happen either, still don't. Broke is broke regardless of the age, but I think I've gained some financial intelligence and wisdom since then.

06/24/08 Bad Doubles Practice on Saturday
I brought what was left of me on Sunday to Hillsborough for some doubles practice with Tina. I cut my lawn and took a Pool liner out of my Pool, so I was pretty wiped on Saturday from the heat. Anyway it was pretty sad and I need to dedicate some more time during the week to practice and work out instead of reading books. I'm really torn between two passions. I want to read Rich Dad/Poor Dad and I want to practice and work out. Anyway played the best I could, but I knew I wasn't moving or swinging right.

06/21/08 Played Cashflow 101 all the way through
Played Cashflow by myself this afternoon think it took at least four hours to play and I was stuck in the Rat Race for a long time. My character, a Doctor, started off with a good salary but some pretty steep debt. A mortgage, a school loan, a car payment, and even some credit card debt. It got worst before it got better. I was downsized three times, bought a damn boat, and went bankrupt. I was able to sell some rental properties and survive until my next paycheck.

After the downturn things started to get a whole lot better. I had like nine rental properties, a bed and breakfast, apartments, and a car wash when I escaped the Rat Race. On the fast track, I purchased a few more businesses, got two law suits, a divorce, and made a killing on a stock (rolled a six). I eventually landed on and bought my dream to play (racquetball) all over the world. OK it was Golf and not racquetball, but let's be serious. Racquetball is it.

I couple of things I noticed playing the game. I noticed I jumped into too many deals at first and looked into too many "Big Deals" without a realistic amount of cash saved up. The second time I was downsized I didn't have enough cash that sent a wake up call me about my current real-life situation. I also dropped a lot of money just like real life. I bought a lot of properties with some cash flow, but could have sold them and finished the game a lot faster.

The game was a lot of fun and not as hard as I thought it would be.

06/19/08 Finally Did It! Storms of a Soul!!
I had to get my wife's car fixed for A/C and pickup a construction permit for a water heater, so I had one more AL day to burn before the end of the year and I took it. So I really pushed this morning and most of the afternoon to finally create a section for my poetry book. Yes, I wrote a poetry book back in 1995, lost about 400 of them due to a flood, and I'm seeing if there's any interest for the last fifty and future printings.

Made excuses for a very long time and it's been bugging me for a long time to get something done. Since I started expanding my site, I needed to include my little poetry book. It's also some of my best Flash to date.

Normally I would still be stuck, but since I'm using PayPal and their basic shopping cart. I can open for business. I'm not going to spoil any surprises by writing about the book yet again, but this book helped save my life. I also wouldn't have the guts to do it if it wasn't for racquetball. Anyway gotta see about taking down a Pool. Joy.

06/18/08 I'm getting a Camera!!
I got money for Father's Day under the condition I buy the camera I wanted. Yeah I know it's a doodad, but if I want to expand my Web Design business I'm going to need more than a 3 mega pixel crap camera. The salesperson talked me out of getting one of the short distance primes that Double Donut recommended. If I take the Camera on a trip and take bad pictures I'm dead after explaining oh, I bought the lens for shooting racquetball from the sidewall...*wack-attack* I also need to learn to shoot first. So baby steps. I got a Nikon D40, which is the camera I always wanted. Thanks for the gift Karen and Jason too, I love you.

06/14/08 Don't know what's Harder...Getting people to play Racquetball or Cashflow 101?
I've approached three people for racquetball and four people for Cashflow 101 this week. The three people for racquetball made excuses. Three of the four for Cashflow made excuses. So maybe if I went after one more person for racquetball it would have been tied, but still it's like pulling teeth.

For Cashflow I approached friends that I've known for a long time to play I was surprised to hear excuses for not playing the game. After all, it's just a game about money. Get some drinks, some pizza, and play the game. For Racquetball, it's excuses I've heard a million times before and they all fall under Fear, fear of looking bad or fear of losing. If you're new to racquetball both are automatic, get over it.

One guy I've known for a long time said he has to go practice alone first. I offered to help him start on the right foot, but nope wants to go practice by himself first so he's not embarrassed when he plays with us. I felt like saying, "After all the opponents I've faced, I want to beat up on a complete and utter newbie." Anyway we learn this, since Toddlers don't have this fear. If they did we all be crawling.

"One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning." -- James Russel Lowell

Approaching the two groups showed me something. It's often the same root fear that prevents us from playing racquetball, asking someone for a date, playing Cashflow, going after a promotion, etc. Sometimes we will look bad doing each of those things. Going through it grants that one thing called experience and experience makes it all easier next time.

06/06/08 Hillsborough Doubles Practice Video
Uploaded all the videos to Veoh. I don't have time to get a thumbnail from each one or even watch it yet. Both Tina and I are going to compare notes and improve our game. Thanks to Ben, Mark, and the other people who helped us practice for next season. Can watch the video by clicking on the picture or here.

Overall we played a good game. I think I'm boxing Tina out of center court and Tina could be on the sidewall too much, but Tina did put away a lot of third shots. Basically I served, they made a return, and Tina killed the third. To really break down what we do consistently and what we need to work on is going to take some time.

06/02/08 God I Hate Tape! (2/2)
As I wrote, I shot some video at Hillsborough and a couple of times I ran out of Tape in the middle of a match. The best setup I had was at the NJO last year. Since I had my laptop everything from the camcorder was converted on the fly to a file. No tape and seven hours of capacity. Pretty damn sweet. Sorry I cut some of the videos, I'm uploading them now and they should be up by tomorrow or Wednesday.

06/02/08 Leigh Marshall Blog (1/2)
My old doubles partner, Leigh Marshall, started up a blog about his life in Taiwan teaching English. When he first went out there, I thought he was a little nuts, but he seems to be making it work and making a bigger difference than he did in the States. So hope things keep going well and he keeps updating his blog.

05/30/08 #1 Racquetball Blog? (1/3)
I had someone contact me a while back and he really wanted a reciprocal link on this page at first I was like my blog page? Hmm, ok. Then I did a Google search and I saw that I was in first place out of 212,000 hits. I'm also top on Ask and Yahoo, but out of the top ten on MSN...After twelve or so years of being online (six for racquetball) to be the top of anything online is a big accomplishment for me and thanks for your support getting me there.

It's been on my mind for a couple of days, so better to write it out, get it out of my head, and get back to racquetball. I know lately my thoughts have been on work, my son, or money, but the blog helps...it helps to hold me accountable for things and in a way it helps me plan.

I guess knowing about being #1 is a little tougher than not knowing. Instantly thoughts about how to keep it come to mind and that sucks. Just want to keep doing the same thing, make the site better, and help promote the sport. If I get knocked out, I hope it's by a blog doing the same thing and the 212,000 becomes 500,000 or more.

05/30/08 Doubles Practice at Hillsborough (2/3)
Tomorrow morning I'm headed over to Hillsborough to practice some doubles with my partner, Tina. Also got the video camera charged up and I should have enough tape to record a match or two. Maybe we'll have the guts to post it here. It's been a while since I recorded myself, hope I'm doing some of the things I set out to improve upon and not get caught up on being video taped.

05/30/08 Blasts from the Past (3/3)
It's funny and I guess it's pretty common, but I feel like I go back in time with people I haven't played in a while. I was playing Tuesday and I was losing. It took me a while, why am I losing? When I was getting ready, I watched him play someone else and I thought ok nothing to worry about. I get on and I start trailing by like five points. Then he's in double digits and I'm not, but it was more than underestimating my opponent. I felt...reduced. I finally snapped out of it and took advantage of him not relocating to center court and watching the ball with low risk ceiling shots. On the serve I took more risks on the forehand side. I eventually won the game, but man what I hole I dug for myself. I was not playing my current game.

Speaking of blasts from the past, my friend Marv is supposed to come out and play tonight. It's been a while, so need to help him get some of the rust off. I also invited him to play that Cashflow 101 game I wrote about. There's four more spots, so I'll ask Nick and Alex. Maybe some other guys from the league. Be good to have a mix of people and learn how they manage money.

05/28/08 A Pretty Dumb Move
About December of last year, I setup a login system and I emailed everyone on the listserv offering them an account. I thought it was great to be able to login and have all the accounts and stuff, but like that little old lady in the Wendy's commercials..."Where's the Beef?" There was no beef, no content, no purpose for people to login. So I totally dropped the ball. So going to improve my login framework, develop some member content, and try again.

05/24/08 Player Nick Names
Jon Panno called me tonight on my way home from my parents asking if I saw his blog yet. He was at a party and it was pretty hard to hear him. Anyway after everything was settled at home I creeped online and saw a massive list of player nick names. Some were pretty funny. Check it out at the Panno-Ramic View. Sincerely Joe "The Wizard" Delgado.

05/22/08 Better to be Prepared...
My Spidey-Sense has been going haywire at work lately, it's been going off for about a year, but it's deafening now. I asked my wife to look at benefits at her job and how long they would need to kick in. I wrote a while back that things were "OK", but OK is no longer good enough. There's a lot of things I could write about and maybe even a couple of choice words about the situation, but better to remain professional, do my job, and quickly lay the ground work for a better choice.

I've always wanted my own computer-related business, never had the guts to really follow through. Half-assed is just half an effort. I may not have a choice soon. I can definitely do it, just need to force through my own self-esteem, create systems, build connections, learn...well learn a lot, and make something happen. One of my favorite movies is Cinderella Man, I love the part when the reporters ask Braddock why is he fighting? He simply answers "Milk." So why do I want a business? Freedom and Milk. I can do a lot more than what I'm doing and it feels like a prison day in and day out, because I'm not involved anymore.

05/18/08 Almost made the same old bad decision...
Sure everyone has heard or has received their economic stimulus check. That $1,500 was sure burning a whole in my pocket and I quickly found myself on a Camera web site punching up a Nikon D40 with a lens that Geoff Thomsen mentions in his Definitive Guide for Racquetball Photography, a memory card, and some filters. I came real close to pushing the button.

Then I started to think about what I read in Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. There was also another book, Why We Want You To Be Rich, by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki that I read a while back. See a pattern? So these books have done nothing else than give me some hunger for more Financial Intelligence instead of more gadgets and liabilities. Instead of a new Camera, I ordered a $200 board game (training) called Cash Flow 101 and some more Flash Training from learnflash.com and left the camera for another time. When I have some real assets to support it.

If anyone wants to play the game with me let me know.

05/13/08 Happy Birthday (3) Jason!
We had a pretty big party on Saturday for Jason and most of our family and friends came over to celebrate. I didn't take any pictures since I was either fetching this, getting that, playing with the kids, and maybe stealing a conversation with some guests. I want to thank Karissa, Karen's best friend, for all of her help, renting and running the grill, and for buying the portable bouncy gym or whatever it is--the kids had a blast.

Some of the stuff Jason says really cracks me up and his observations about things and people surprises me. His favorite thing in the morning is "Need to go to work. To make money." Seems to be stuck. I'll try and take care of the money part and hopefully all that work means to you is more play. Love ya Son. Carpe Diem!

05/08/08 The Panno-Ramic View
One of the blogs I find myself checking out is Jon Panno's (NJAR) Panno-Ramic View. I've known Jon for a long time and he can vary between silly and very serious on the court. Often when he's being silly he's setting people up, so that's when I find him the most dangerous, but I often can't play with him that way since I often can't focus on my game. Anyway...I like reading Jon's blog since he tells it how it is from his point of view.

Aimee Ruiz had a pretty good blog going, but there's a blog here and there for each event. She also seems to have lost some edge to her writing. I really enjoyed her first blog after that I think the censor came out or it just got too long to read. I've noticed my own censors once in a while and some topics I just don't write about anymore. Which leads to some boring writing.

05/06/08 Good to See Jeff on the Court
Jeff DeLorenzo and Ronny Choy came to play last Friday. I wrote about Jeff before, he's like the only other Rutgers guy I see at Tournaments nowadays and it's even better that he's a student. Anyway we played a couple of cut-throat games and I spotted a couple of repetitive weaknesses in his game. Not watching his opponents shot--yes I know Panno Pot calling the Kettle black--not relocating to center court after his serve, and pinning himself on one side of the court. Otherwise he has ok mechanics and he hit one or two shots pretty solid. I asked him, "Where did that come from?" Other than a few basic strategy mistakes, he can do well with some good guidance and practice. Hope he keeps showing up.

Ronny plays a pretty good game of cut-throat and doubles. I'm still very surprised he didn't do better in the League. After playing, both of them admitted that mental toughness was holding them back. Yeah me too. Admitting that something is a problem is the first step toward fixing it. Most people would gloss over it with an excuse, so good job stepping up guys. Welcome to the club.

04/30/08 The Finals on 46...Too Soon!
I decided a while back I wasn't going to enter another tournament until I fixed some stuff with my game. I know Tina, my doubles partner, was pretty eager to jump into another tourney. That's cool. I like that enthusiasm, but we've actually been practicing and looking to record our games in the near future.

I looked over the participants and it looks pretty good. I even see Felix Ruiz, my former partner, on the list for Doubles. We kind of let things fade to black, I kind of joked around when I saw him playing with Joe Camiolo at State Singles. Shame they lost in the first round. Tina and I advanced in the Mixed. Later his new partner came up to me to say he's going to play with Felix from now on. I was like ok, no sweat. Can I introduce you to Tina? <jk>.

Don't get me wrong I think Felix is a nice guy, knows every body, and is very supportive of his wife Aimee...but we're not a good fit for doubles. We don't get to practice, we don't email or talk doubles, the couple of times we played it was more of surviving the match than winning, and finally we don't have Chemistry. So we limped a long for a while, but it needed to stop. The best part it appears mutual. I wish Felix good luck in the tourney and I'll be watching to see how the draw unfolds. He's a lot better than he thinks he is and glad he stepped down to C.

Looking forward to working with Tina and forming a good partnership on the courts. We talk doubles, played a couple of times at Hillsborough already with more sessions on the way, we move pretty well, and she can be pretty spicy. She might even be more level headed than Leigh. Sorry dude.

04/30/08 Player Profiles Return!
I can't remember the last time the Player Profiles actually worked, it used to work in a very inefficient way. Every time I recorded a match my program wrote everything for everyone. Thankfully by using XML/XSLT I can just upload one file and pull what I need for profiles, rankings, and other stuff. My database still does the work, but one file is a lot easier to manage than hundreds.

It's still the old profiles, it even has my old logo at the top. Ultimately it's ok for now and it was pretty cool to play with C# another programming language from Microsoft. Sometimes it's too easy to grind away at something and forget to have fun. I used to do C++ programming all the time and was having a great time developing a game that had all sorts of objects for stuff. So making the profiles work again was fun, a lot of fun.

04/23/08 Time for some AJAX and JavaScript (Geeky)
For a long time, I've ignored JavaScript (a programming language that works in your browser) on most of my pages because it could be disabled and then I have to write more code to handle "possible" problems, but I recently started playing with AJAX. Not the cleanser but another geeky term Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. I think they just shoved XML in there to make the acronym work. Anyway with AJAX only parts of the page can pulled from the server which makes it easier for people to use a site. If you ever used the Google Toolbar whenever it starts to suggest search topics...well's that some AJAX in action.

I've run the full gambit planning my profiles section. I started with Flash and have that as an option using my existing setup, but I feel it's going to take a lot more work than just outputting a page using XML and XSLT. So I'll use some AJAX and hopefully be able to add some cool features like viewing two profiles side by side, ELO and Other Calculators.

04/13/08 Jason and Racquetball
Between playing Cars and Cooking Food there's been a couple of times when Jason has wanted to put on a pair of goggles, grab a racquet with the wrist lacer on, and bounce the ball around with his old man in the house. He's going to be three soon,so I plan on letting him run around on a outdoor court. Not sure I can get him to play at Rutgers or even Hillsborough yet, but he sure does love running around and trying to bounce the ball on my racquet.

About fifty times at day, I wonder if I'm raising him right and sometimes I think I spoil him. So I worry about his future toughness and then I see his natural ability to run around and throw himself on the floor or jump into the air and I see potential to far exceed my meager ability. He also has a pretty good hot streak when he's denied something. He also likes my trophies, so who knows. All I can be is supportive and love him as much as I can. Funny to think how much my life has changed in a short time. "No baby, I'm a boy!" Jason says when my wife calls him a baby.

04/08/08 Rutgers OK
I had a difficult meeting with my bosses' boss yesterday. There's been some issues and I just really wanted to know where things were going and where I stood. So without going into a lot of details. I got some reassurance about my position and a possible future. I came really close to just putting my house in order and leaving, but there's a part of me that likes what I do at Rutgers.

After I sent the email for the meeting on Friday, I went to the courts and saw four guys just whacking a ball around in a court trying to play doubles. I knocked on the door and said, "What's going on here?" They laughed and I showed them how to play the basics. Afterward, I felt kind of sad to think this could go away. So it was good to air out the dirty laundry and get some reassurance that what I'm doing for Rutgers is good. Ultimately I would like to do my own thing, but I need to be able to consistently pay one bill first. Right now...maybe my website every three months.

03/15/08 Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.
Been home since Wednesday with a Virus and a Sinus Infection, so had three days without work and not a shred of energy or motivation to work on my home projects. That really sucks. Anyway little things like checking my email and updating my blog are ok. I often spend the rest of the time in bed just watching TV. Karen thinks it's not the flu, since she says I wouldn't be able to move. Anyway just want the bug dead, so I can get back to full strength.

I guess one good thing came out of this, I dropped my caffeine habit again. Last Saturday, at NJ State Singles, it got a little out of hand. I think I had about three Pepsi/Cokes that day. Messy stuff.

03/05/08 On the Way to Happy Feet!
Finally got my orthodics today. What a big difference from the OTC junk I had to endure. My feet started to hurt before I even put my feet on the ground, which is a good thing. So can't wait to break them in and get everything lined up again. Don't get me wrong the OTC inserts were a life saver compared to not wearing anything, but having a real arch should help with my occasional knee pain and running.

03/02/08 Not much Different.
State Singles is less than a week away and I did not make any progress on my homework from the end of January. I knew a couple of months wasn't going to make a big deal of difference and I would be seriously confused going into one of the major tournaments of the year. So I got busy with my league and other stuff, but I promise to put the work in after this Season is over. I don't use the "P" word too often, so I better make this one stick.

02/24/08 "Am I ready for my first tournament?"
A friend of mine asked me that question not too long ago. I didn't know how to answer. From my own experience, I know I jumped in ahead of my instructor (Bill Serafin's) expectations. Since then I've played a good deal of tournaments. I've had my good and bad moments and I've learned a lot about the sport and met some great people. So for me, I'm glad I jumped in the pool and got wet.

It's like a lot of things in life. We put off things we should do or want. If only I had this...I can get that. Or if I knew how to do this, I could get that. In the end, it's stepping into the lion's den and getting clawed, mangled, and chewed up. It's pretty easy to procrastinate and make excuses, what's the worst that can happen? You lose. What's the worst if you don't...Theodore Roosevelt said it best:

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt.

I would recommend newcomers attend a Hillsborough Tournament. It's a round robin format so you're not dropping more than $35 for a whole day of games against different players and you don't have to commit to a USAR membership either. It's a great group of players, some good competition, and a cool shirt and theme. For a novice there's nothing better, well my league is pretty good too.

02/09/08 Target Practice
Last Wednesday, after a couple of doubles games. I asked my friend Bert if I could have his old Wilson racquet cover since it was broken. I only had one ball, so I propped up the case against the front wall. Lined myself up about three feet from the back wall and started my drop and hit drill. I stuck with 10 reps per set just so I can keep track easier. First couple of sets were nothing, I was totally off.

Then during one set I hit the mark three times. After a few more sets I was missing but the ball was within a foot of the mark and was hitting it at least once per set. Leigh Marshall, my Doubles Partner who's across the globe, said it was important and after Fred Letter told me my shots were going to the middle of the court. I needed to do something.

I'm very happy with the drill, but I need a lot more practice. It's just been a long time since I practiced by myself and it shows every where. I can't break down mechanically at tournaments anymore. Still haven't managed to hit the gym or drill during lunch time, but I just need to get into the habit.

02/03/08 Good and Bad of Automatic Scheduling
One of the things I hate most about the league is setting up the schedule. Over the years I've developed Access forms that display peoples' available times with multiple calendar displays, but probably the greatest innovation was this series of functions that automates most of the schedule based on days I want the league to run. It does a pretty good job, but it doesn't really care about the difficulty of the players and since I play multiple matches it can easily put a couple of hard players back to back. Oh well, it's fair and saves me the chance of playing favorites or being influenced by what I consider hard and easy matches.

01/28/08 Sad, sad, sad C Division
I was incredibly disappointed after another first round C loss. It was against Lee Abraham. Maybe all of two serves did not go to my forehand, I even shaded over, and couldn't do much with the serve. Think I made him work for the win, but mechanically I couldn't do anything with the ball. That's twice my forehand has let me down. Once was at the NJO in the doubles game. Now a whole match in C's. Not sure Lee had a right sided serve or he just realized it's his best serve and he's getting good results from it, so why change it?

This all goes back to Fred's advice about not playing enough. All this advice is good, but without application it doesn't mean anything. I want to put the work in to make the people proud of giving me the advice in the first place. To show them that I listened and found valuable what they had to say to me as a friend.

I love racquetball, but I'm never going to get all that I want from it without some real hard work and not this lip-service or half-hearted effort.

01/28/08 More Player Advice
Thinking about this has reminded me of some more players who gave me advice. Real and straight-forward advice is hard to come by and very valuable. I remember one time at Classic, John Patric told me to follow him on to a court and showed me how to hit a forehand and backhand and had me do it a couple of times until I got it somewhat right. Not sure I'm following this one and it's tough to remember exactly the movements, but I appreciated the advice. It definitely hurt, but sometimes the best medicine doesn't taste good.

Aimee Ruiz during the last Head Demo at Rutgers told me to pick a spot on the wall for my lob serve and to take a deep breath before serving. Pretty sure I didn't follow this one and really need to integrate it into my game. Not taking a moment and thinking leads right smack into some advice I received this weekend.

Fred Letter was kind enough to watch twenty minutes of my Doubles game with Felix Ruiz at the Garden State Games this past weekend. He told me 80 to 90% of my shots were being hit to the middle of the court so two opponents where covering the ball instead of one. He also said I have the power, but that I'm not thinking about my shots. Very true, most of my shots are just reactive. I wish they were like Eddie Ortiz's forehand, him and his partner John, crushed us the second round in doubles. Just kept on rolling out that forehand. (Sorry about the cross court shot that hit you in the back Eddie.)

Think Wayne Suggs also said I need to let the ball drop more, so I can hit lower. Also Felix Ruiz reminded me in our first round doubles to keep bending my knees. Not sure that I was totally, but I was trying to take a bigger stride which forced my knees to bend. My serve was on that game and we squeaked out a win. I implored him that maybe we're not B's, but he shrugged it off saying our execution was bad.

01/23/08 Player Advice (Updated 11 PM EST)
I often ask for advice, but most of the time it's in and out of head in a day or two. I thought about making a "Homework" section, but decided it would take up too much space and conflict with the blog, so might as well put it here.

Probably the oldest advice comes from Bill Serafin. Mostly about bending my knees and getting lower to the ball, but he knew I wasn't going to bend my knees anytime soon. I'm trying Bill. Just always think it's going to hurt when I straighten up. Also learned from him to stay off the wall in Doubles and the cross court shot is often the most effective shot in Doubles.

Edurado Mancheno, from Classic, also told me to get lower to the ball and showed me the importance of moving my feet before hitting my shot. Not sure I'm following this one.

Last year, Jon Panno from Woodbridge told me to look at my opponent. I was surprised since I believe that I do look, but it may not be enough to get the max information from my opponent's shot. Anyway I'm working on it and sometimes I start to move my feet in anticipation. Compared to some of the people I play with who stay locked on the front wall, I always thought I was better at this.

Wayne Suggs, not sure if it's Eclipse or another club, but he told me once at Busch to start moving and put some H in the word hustle and stop moving so casually. He also showed me his way of hitting a pinch, by setting up in that direction. A big red flag went up since it violates the teachings of Fran Davis, but I can see his point of view also. It just eliminates all deception, but if you hit the shot right it doesn't matter.

Nancy Luyando from Middlesex asked me after she ref'ed a match if I had any video of myself. You know it's never good when someone asks you that! She didn't want to mess me up during the match, but she wants me to work on my Early Racquet Prep. Whenever I play recreationally I remind myself to at least make the attempt.

Fred Letter at the Gladiatorial Games at Hillsborough asked me how many times I was playing per week. I told him about twice. Monday and Friday. He said that's not enough to get better. You'll need at least three. Fred is an awesome player. Wayne Suggs told me that Fred knows where the ball is going to wind up before his opponent hits the ball. So any advice he gives me ranks high on my list.

01/21/08 The Agony of Da Feet
I have Flat Feet and I'm not writing a little flat. Flatter than a pancake. Wearing custom orthodics has been a life saver, but over the years I wore them to the plastic, I even tried to put mole skin to put off replacing them as a long as possible, eventually I just threw them away. Playing racquetball since has been rough and playing the New Jersey Open sure caused me some soreness afterward.

Anyway I couldn't take it any more and bought some Over the Counter gel inserts that helped, but still I need my custom orthodics and looks like they are not going to be ready until after the Garden State Games. Should be able to make due. It's everything else that needs to be stretched out.

01/16/08 Goodbye Ashaway!
Jason Mannino posted on Meet and Play that Technifibre 505 Bi-phase string was the best string. It's also what Aimee Ruiz uses all the time, so I bought myself a set. From a stringing standpoint it was so easy to use. It had very little coil memory and almost glided into place. Performance wise, since both mains and crosses were 17 gauge, I had a lot more power and the racquet felt more comfortable at the end of the Gladiatorial Games at Hillsborough.

Of course, I'm going to be greedy and find an 18 gauge string and see how that works, but I definitely would install Technifibre 505 again. Shame it's kind of pricey, but you get what you pay for.

01/10/08 Happy New Year!
Probably a little too late to write "Happy New Year" to people, but how else can I start a new year off?

Glad I finally started the audit and it's been going a long with my expectations. Maybe about forty people have answered back so far and I expect more once students come back from break.

I started a league at Cook again with eleven people and it gives me the responsibility to make sure my site is working again. I looked at some of my old code for running the leagues and some of it is pretty out dated.