2013 USBC Open Championship

It's 5:01 AM PDT, and I'm in my room at the Sands Regency in Reno, Nevada, logged in to look at work emails for the bargain price of $12.99.

That's for the WiFi, not the room.  The room was a nice $32 even after taxes, but I only stayed the one night, because the Friday and Saturday night rates were much higher.  So I opted for the cheaper, in every meaning of the word, Motel 6 for the first two nights of my trip.

After getting about 3 hours of low-quality sleep, thinking about having to pack, check out, check in for my flight, and return the rental car, I decided that as long as I'm going to get poor sleep, no sleep can't be much worse, and perhaps I'll get a few productive things done. So I went through my "urgent" work e-mails and other tasks, but not until after reconsidering what items I consider "urgent" from my hotel room at 5:01 on my day off.

I figured I might as well instead blog about the Open Championship bowling tournament I just completed, my third now, and best so far ('though still not quite where I want to be). I will get some money back, although certainly not enough to pay for next year's entry fee again. I just about broke even in the brackets department; a 136 to start doubles kept it from being profitable.

Before I post the scores, here are the top good and bad takeaways from this year:

- I'm getting better at reading lanes.  I just need to do them more quickly.
- I also need to know my equipment better as far as what each ball will do in comparison to each other.
- Spare shooting still needs improvement.  This will be, and I mean it this time (no, really I do), a top priority over the summer and next year.
- Another priority will be to work on hand positions at release.
- As much fun as I had this year, being on a team of ten guys who are all on the same "page" will be a goal of mine. Next year would be nice, but it may take more time than that.
- Consistent with what I think about my league bowling, I need to better focus in the earlier frames of my games.

To that last point, consider these stats for my nine games:

Open Frames: 18
Open Frames after the 5th frame: 7
Of the 7 open frames, amount in the 136 game: 3
Of the 7 open frames, number in the 11th frame (and thus, not critical): 2

So except for the 136, I'm pleased with how I was able to "hunker down" to get the most of my games despite some rough starts. I was also generally pleased with my ability to focus on most of my shots.  The goal of course is 100%...someday.

OK, enough geek stuff, here's the image of every game, frame-by-frame, from the opening nerve-induced three-count (which I converted), to the closing missed spare, that even though I just got done saying wasn't critical, it did cost me $7.50 in brackets, as I ended up tying one of them.

One thing I can't figure out: An asterisk on the sheet means it was a split. So why, in game two of my singles event, is there an asterisk before my strike in the tenth frame? Perhaps readers from the bowling community can help me out with that.

Bowling balls and fortified candy bars

My equpiment is all set, and the latest changes to my game are in place, so all that is left is the packing and anticipation. I look for a much better USBC Open Championship than last year's debacle in Baton Rouge. Team event is Saturday the 27th; S&D on Sunday.

Yes, I've bought new equipment before.  Yes, I've made changes to my game before.  So I will not post on those until after I return from Reno.

I'm munching on a MetRX protein bar right now, and will be packing plenty for my trip. I'm trying to budget well, so I won't be doing to many traditional meals in Reno.  Although it's a relatively expensive bar at $3.49 at my company store and other convenience stores, Walmart carries them for $1.98/bar.  Cheaper than Micky D's in Reno for sure.

Hard to believe MetRx has been around for over 20 years now.  So many supplement companies come and go, primarily because people eventually realize the latest and greatest is nothing but the same stuff (or no more effective than the stuff) that other companies are selling.

I've seen so many of these companies come and go, and many of them went with some of my money.  Cybergenics. Hot Stuff. Weider, back when he was king. EAS is barely hanging on, or so it seems.

I like protein bars only for the convenience.  It's too inconvenient to get my daily intake of protein, so there you go. But I do laugh at the mere thought of them selling what is basically a fortified candy bar, or clump of cookie dough in the case of my personal favorite offering.

When MetRx first came out, it was as a powder that came in two parts, perfectly formulated so that you mix them together to form the perfect food and only supplement you would ever need. My bullshit detector was not as sharp back then, so I only questioned to myself casually why, if this was the perfect combination of milk and whey protein, was it OK per the directions to mix it with either water or milk?

Anyway, now it's a sugar-sweetened clump of cookie dough, so perhaps the original product wasn't so perfect after all.  And of course, Bill Phillips, of Body-for-Life fame, who co-promoted the product, spun off his own company and competitive product (EAS/Myoplex), and touted his as the superior product. My naivete of yesteryear was a trigger point to future financial issues.  I bought over $500 of the stuff on a credit card, back when I was a rookie DJ making $6/hour.  I justified it by kidding myself into believing I would hardly need any other solid food, so the cost would be offset somewhat. The credit card balance would grow and grow for more than just a few years, and led to some seriously lean and turbulent times ahead for me and my soon-to-be first wife.

I have never tried, nor intend to try, recreational/anabolic steroids, but I've spent many a dollar trying to find the perfect natural supplement.  Hint: It doesn't exist.  I still like to try new products, but more for the convenience of them, and the workout energy. Nothing works anywhere close to steroids - a lesson I wish I had fully learned many years and dollars ago.

Time to Start Living Vicariously

In less than two weeks, I will take a trip to Reno, Nevada, to bowl in the USBC Open Championship, where if all goes well, I will win back a portion of my $180 entry fee, to help take the sting out of a $1000 extended weekend.

I've been told by friends and family that I have a wide array of talents, bowling being one of them.  I don't think I'll sound too lacking in humility to say that they are, to some degree, correct.

I am "good" at a lot of things.  I'm "great" at nothing.

My family, on the other hand, is loaded with talent. My older sister the valedictorian and musician, my younger one the actress.  Real life got in the way of their dreams, but they have more talent than I could hope to.

I also have five talented children.  My son the rock drummer and aspiring producer. My daughter, who is already hearing from Ivy League schools in her sophomore year in high school.  My other daughter the dancer. My younger sons, who are already showing the gifts that their older siblings have.

I have a cousin who is an amazing freehand artist, his brother a former pro ballplayer and three-sport star, their father the former pro football player and current German League champion coach. I have another cousin who owns multiple patents, and currently markets an amazing hunting product (deer attractant), which has allowed him to do such things as hunt with Ted Nugent. (He can jam at the guitar nearly as good as Ted as well.)

It's a little depressing to know that you're too old for your dreams of yesteryear.  My remedy will be to create new dreams.  And to live vicariously. Anyway...

Not the least of my talented family members are my parents, both doctorates and both having risen to the highest levels of their chosen professions.

Even at the second cousin level, I have one who is a D-1 college golfer. I have a first cousin, once-removed, who is a D-1 hockey player.  (Oh, and before I forget, my wife was a D-1 swimmer.)

And lastly, but not leastly, I have another first cousin, once-removed, who is presently at the doorstep of bona fide stardom.  She started just from a desire to learn songs, some four years ago.  Now age 13, she's won talent shows, including the Minnesota State Fair pre-teen finals, and has developed quite a following on the Internet.

Below is a link to her recent release; written and recorded at the age of 12. That's not a typo.

I hope to share more of my talented family in future posts. I said "lastly" above, but there are some I didn't even mention.  It's precisely this breadth of talented family that allows me to say that I am indeed good at many things, yet without feeling braggadocious about it.  With the level of talent I'm surrounded by daily, saying I'm merely "good" at something is basically admitting inferiority.

(I'll still shamelessly brag about my kids, however.)

Enjoy.

Josie Nelson - Never Again