An Angel Falls Back To Earth

Hooray! Another goal for the year finally crossed off the list. IT was a long time coming, as bad weather delayed my jump for almost a month. Clouds STILL managed to roll in right as we were taking off, but no matter. I wanted to skydive and i did from about 10,000 feet. It was a fantastic experience. one I would do again in a heartbeat. I was very nervous going into it, but I was wearing my Rafa shirt for extra confidence and therefore managed to hold it together. It really was quite a crazy sensation because you don't FEEL like you're falling but you know that's you're falling. It's amazing. My sincere thanks to the awesome people at Skydive Long Island including Brian my tandem jump instructor, and Alex my videographer. It was also very nice to have my dad, sister and two nieces with me. Thanks for making the drive all the way out there!

I'm very glad I faced two of my biggest fears which are heights and falling (which pretty much add up to a fear of letting go) and it feels very good to have made it through.

So between the skydiving and the half-marathon, it's been a physically and mentally draining weekend. At the same time it was all very refreshing. Time to think of my next challenge....

Rafa's Fight For 5: Inconceivable!

Dude, Rafa LOST. He lost early. He lost pretty badly, to be honest. I don't know what to feel. I think I'm still in shock. Sure, Soderling has weapons and if Rafa didn't play his best, Soderling COULD win, but who thought that would happen? Not me. This whole tournament has been weird because I haven't gotten to see Rafa play live AT ALL thanks to the sucktastic "The Tennis Channel." So I've been keeping track of the action on line with score tracker and video highlights. It's not the right way to watch Rafa tennis! And now Rafa's run is over for this tourney.

Rafa said it best himself: "I have to accept with the same calm when I win than when I lose. After four years, I lose here, and the season continues, [Soderling] did well. He did very well but I didn't play my best tennis. I didn't play my tennis, and for that reason I lost. That's it,.. I was not calm enough to face the important points, so I had to fight. But sometimes fighting is not enough. You have to play a good level of tennis... Sometimes people think I win because I'm physically fit, but, no. When I win, it's because I play well, and that wasn't the case today."

I would also like to say that it was reported the French fans did not support Rafa in his effort and that it hurt Rafa's feelings and to that i say WHAT THE FUCK, ROLAND GARROS CROWD?!? You are all DEAD TO ME!

Finally, before heading home to Mallorca to celebrate his birthday with family and friends and clear his head by swimming in the pool at his family's house, Rafa expressed his hope for a Federer win this year. “It would be great [to see him win it], so that he can complete the Grand Slam. If anybody deserves it, it’s him."

Since that is Rafa's preference, I can easily endorse Fed's ongoing campaign to win the French Title. Therefore from this post on, my ongoing French Open posts will change from Rafa's Fight for 5, to Federer's Fight for a First! Hopefully it will do him better than the posts did you. You're still my hero, Rafa. See you on the grasscourts. Vamos!

Rafa's Fight for 5: Round Three - No Contest!

Nadal cruised to victory today against Lleyton Hewitt, beating him 6-1 6-3 6-1, in under two hours. There's not a whole lot to say about the match because Rafa was in such top form and there was nothing Hewitt could do to seriously challenge him. The end result never seemed in doubt.

Rafa's assessment? "For sure it was my best match here so far [this year]. I felt much better today and a win against Lleyton is always a great win. It was an amazing result."



Indeed it was. Rafa now leads in his life-time match-up against Lleyton 5-4. I was so surprised to learn they were tied coming into this match, but three of the losses for Hewitt came in each of their three French Open match-ups. I bet a lot of Hewitt's wins come on Hardcourt or Grass back when Nadal was trying to build his game on those surfaces. Unlucky for Lleyton to come up against the King of Clay so early in the competition this year. I thought he played well in his first two rounds this year. I always apppreciate Hewitt's competitive nature on court.

Coming next for Nadal is a fourth-round match up with Robin Soderling, who rather impressively knocked off 14th-seed David Ferrer today. Go get him, Rafa! Show no mercy!

Note: Whoever is taking these pictures of Rafa, is doing an amazing job. I will try to give credit where credit is due. Usually all the shots that come out of Nadal have him making crazy faces, but these pics are so clean! Click on them to really appreciate the awesomeness. For now I congratulate Bernat Armangue/Associated Press and Franck Faugere/DPPI for their excellent work.

Rafa's Fight For 5: Second Round - Broken Records

Yesterday Rafa scored another victory. Hooray! Nadal got past the No.72 player in the world, Teimuraz Gabashvili (fun name!), in straights sets: 6-1, 6-4, 6-2. This marks his 30th straight victory at Roland Garros, beating Chris Evert's record of 29 successive wins at the French Open! Rafa's trademark response?

“So what?” Nadal said. “(I’m) happy for the record, but in the end happy for the result.”

and...

“I’m very happy about my 30th consecutive win at Roland Garros but [to be honest], I come here to win matches. I’m excited about this record but the important thing here is to play well and to be here [to play the final] on the second Sunday,”

and...

"I played better today than [I did] the first day - won in three sets so that's good and I am happy to be in the third round."

and in continued talk of the pink shirt:

"I knew these colours since the moment some months ago Nike showed us the proposed clothing. I like pink, and I specially like this outfit very much. The whole combination I find it really nice. We wear a lot of pink in Spain and I think it is a nice colour. If you look at my website it is also pink for this tournament."

Next up: 3rd Round action against former No. 1 player, Lleyton Hewitt! Vamos, Rafa!

Rafa's Fight for 5: First Round - Pretty in Pink

This week starts the French Open. Yesterday I watched a lot of great tennis. I was hoping to watch Nadal today, but of course the Tennis Channel had to be a dick and not share their coverage with regular television stations, so I didn't get to see him play. LAME. If you're not gonna be a part of regular TV, Tennis Channel, maybe you shouldn't monopolize coverage of one of the Majors? Just a thought.



Anyway, of course Rafa shows up wearing pink and yellow, because he's fucking awesome. The background of his website had gone pink last week, so I figured perhaps his new shirt color would follow. I'm sure people will ask him about it, and we'll see what he says, but you know he can kick your ass off the court wearing any color, so I guess he figured he'd just brighten it up this tournament. Maybe he thought if he wore a crazy shirt, people would ask him more about the shirt than how he feels about the possibility of winning five French Opens in a row. It's a pretty good strategy if he doesn't want to be too much in his head about getting the title.

Rafa's through round 1 with a nice 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 win over Marcos Daniel of Brazil for his 29th straight win on the Roland Garros red clay. This equals the record set by Chris Evert between 1974 and 1981.. Can he take it all the way to a 5th straight French Open Victory? Stay tuned!



UPDATE: Of course, someone in the press room asked him as soon as possible about the pink shirt. His response on why he's wearing pink: "Because it's better than dress the same color every week, no?" Yes, Rafa. It is.

Final Fantasy XII: Complete!

FINALLY. I started playing Finally Fantasy XII... i don't even know. YEARS ago. '07? '08? Jesus Christo. I don't even think PS3's existed at the time I started playing this game. I am a huge Final Fantasy fan, starting back in elementary school with the original game occupying an amazing amount of my time on the NES. XII was a great addition to the franchise. The storyline was majorly complex and often felt like a Shakespearean History play only with magic spells and monsters. Political intrigue was rampant and I'm not gonna lie and say I wasn't confused about the different warring factions and who the hell the Dynast-King was and who that weird rogue Shadow God was who seemed to be causing problems for everybody. What was manufacted nethicite? Gabranth killed the King of Dalmasca just to fill Lady Ashe with rage? WUH? It all made even less sense having been away from the story for so long. Everything else about the game was great though. I loved the setting and the characters, I grew to really enjoy the gameplay which was a big departure from previous FF battle systems. I loved it so much which was why when I became aware that I was getting close to the end months and months ago, I stopped playing. I didn't want it to end. For awhile, I ran around doing the side quests and levelling up my characters, but then I just put the game away. I wanted there to be more Final Fantasy out there in the world left for me to play. I figured I'd wait until I knew a firm release date for the inevitable Final Fantasy XIII, but... no release date was announced. it's just TBA 2009. I do not think the game will be released in 2009. I mean, we're already on June's doorstep and we don't have an '09 release date? That's not promising.

I decided since this was a holiday weekend and I didn't have travel plans, that I would take some time and finally finish the game. I am glad I did. I was closer to the end than i thought and after just a few hours of gameplay, I beat the final bosses and got the pay-off of watching the final movie sequences. I thought the end was a good resolution, and didn't have too much heartbreak - a traditional part of a Final Fantasy ending. It's much preferred if you're playing a game for 60-somewhat hours to not have the main love story end in death , or with one of the lovers trapped in some horrible ghost dimension. This was more upbeat. Thank goodness.

Now, please, Square Enix - if that is even still the company name after so many mergers - give me my Final Fantasy XIII that I've been waiting for. At least give me a release date. Is that really asking so much?

If it's Sunday, It's... a Win for Rafa!

Woohoo! This is the third Sunday in a row where Rafa has been playing for an ATP Tournament Championship, and it's also his third win. This week it was the Rome Master Series Event, following victories at the Monte Carlo Masters and the Barcelona Open. Nadal broke an Open Era tie with Thomas Muster, who won Rome titles in 1990, 1995 and 1996. Jaroslav Drobny and Martin Mulligan also each won three titles before the Open Era. But Now Rafa's got four! It was his 15th Masters Series title, one more than Federer and two shy of Andre Agassi’s record of 17. Rafa also improved his tour-best record to 38-3 this year, winning five of the eight tournaments he’s entered.



Rafa makes cheering for him super-easy during the clay court season. But please, Rafa. I am BEGGING you to take a week off now! You've been playing great. You've been beating up on everybody. No one can touch you. Don't you now want to take a nap, or just spend some time at home? Like for instance, today it was rainy and cold and I've been sitting around my house cleaning my apartment and watching movies. It feels great! You need this kind of day every once in a while.



I couldn't watch your match since I don't (yet) get the Tennis Channel. I did keep track of the live score online. I'm very very happy for you that you've been on sure a roll lately, but if you play again this week, I'm gonna be upset. You've earned a break. We've all earned a break. Stay home and eat some junk food and watch a dvd. You'll be glad that you did.