Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

Gina and I headed over to Highland Lanes this morning for their Sunday bowling special.

As we were pulling up I saw a familiar face wheeling his bag into the alley, Ray.

Ray was on lane 29 and we got lane 30.

I thought it was kind of funny to be next to Ray again.

Gina and I showed up approx the same time that Jeremy and I did last week, so it would make sense that Ray would likely be there at the same time. (I am hoping to catch him next Sunday as well, given that Jeremy has stated he wants to come down next week.)

Ray's opening game was a 144 if memory serves. He had a couple of good strikes in there and a couple of nice spare pickups.

Thanks to the lanes being just about perfect for my style, I opened it up with a 181.

The second game was the interesting one.

Both Ray and I had the same score for the first three frames. Spare, strike, Spare (9 pins).

Then Ray pulled ahead, with a strike, I think I dropped that frame or followed it with a spare, regardless the rest of the game was Ray's.

We were not officially playing against one another. However, I did notice that he was paying attention to my score and congratulating me when I managed a good shot or strike. I clapped and congratulated him whenever he landed a strike or a spare. He had a really good game, ending it with a 186.

If I had managed to get a strike in the 9th frame I would have had a chance at beating him, but I just couldn't get it. The best I could do was a 177. Which is funny when you think about how bad I did last week.

Ray was tired after two games and told Gina and I that he was going to head home.

He mentioned that whenever he gets bored around the house that he heads over to the alley. He also mentioned that he is still bowling league, I think he is bowling in the 'Prime Timers' league on Thursday's around lunch, it is a Seniors league and he mentioned that he bowls on Thursdays.

He asked if I was in league and I told him that I am thinking about joining back up, the Tuesday Doubles @ lunch. The meeting is in May, I think I will be able to arrange my schedule by then to ensure that 12-1pm on Tuesday's is free. Ray mentioned that he has a 150 average still.

I am not sure if he remembered me from last week or not, but he did mention to me again that back in the '90s he had a 200 average.

He did inform Gina and I that his wife passed away recently, day after x-mas. He told us that she died of cancer, it was hard to hear him completely, but when I gave him my condolences, after thanking me he mentioned that he was glad that he did not have to worry about her anymore. I think I understand what he meant, even though it came out a little funny.

He also told us that they had been married 68 years. Man 68 years. I think Gina might get me out on a wave runner again before we make it to 68 years.

Gina also only bowled two games. However, I bowled another two games after Ray left, hoping to beat his score of 186.

Unfortunately, I could not. My third game had me thinking I should have ended after two as well, it was a 141.

Then came my fourth game. I opened with a strike, then a spare, then a strike, then a spare, sweet!!!! Then I fscked up, I broke the cycle. I didn't get a strike but another spare.

I proceeded to get mostly spares the rest of the game with a strike in the 9th. I almost had a clean game, but I was not able to pick-up the 10th frame in order to get that extra ball you get in the 10th.

Final score was a 171.

Still a respectable score, but needless to say a little depressing given my un-official 87 year old opponent.

As I told Ray previously, I really hope that if I make it to 87 that I am still bowling, and bowling as well as him.

Ray even shared a bowling trick of his, if he only uses one of his fingers he can manage to get the 10 pin. He also told me that his primary ball is an 11 pound plastic.

Regardless, Ray is a good bowler and I look forward to seeing him at the alley on Sundays.

Gina and I went in search of Greek food for lunch.

She spent a good part of the time at the alley scouring over Yelp-Mobile on her phone.

We finally decided upon the Phoenicia Bakery. However, they are closed on Sundays.

This left us with Sarah's Mediterranean Grill & Market. We had eaten there previously back when Jeremy was flying in for two weeks at a time. We were both pretty hungry. I had the chicken shawarma and Gina had a Gyro wrap. I also ordered four falafel patties (I think I could eat falafel all the time). I also ordered some a side of hummus.

Anyway, I need to get out and mow the front lawn before it gets too late.

Laterz

Let me start off with the 87 years thing.

I managed to drag myself out of bed on Sunday morning to go bowling, I also managed to get Jeremy to meet me there. I originally wanted to get there at 10 am. However, I don't think I managed to get out the door until almost 10:20 or so.

Highland Lanes has a $7 all you can bowl from 9:30 to noon deal on Sundays. (They have some sort of other deal on Saturday mornings, but I forget.)

I did absolutely horrible my first game. To speak of it, I did absolutely HORRIBLE my first frame of my first game, I guttered both of balls of that frame. I mean if I had thrown the ball out too far and dumped it in the right gutter I don't think I would have felt as bad, but nope I managed to misread my first gutter-ball (which just barely missed the 7 pin) and manage to dump my second ball in the left gutter.

It took me until the second game to really get warmed up, I think I closed out the first one with something like an 84. My second game was a 143 if memory serves. However, my last score was like a 120 or so.

Jeremy managed to beat me 2 out of three games.

But the more amazing part of the morning was, Ray. I didn't take the change to get Ray's last name, but Ray started bowling next to us, and Ray is 87 years old.

I first noticed Ray when he was walking up to his table. At first I thought he was just there to watch someone bowl. However, then there was a loud thud as Ray dropped his rolling bowling bag at the table next to us. He proceeded to pull out two bowling balls and a large tablet of scores.

I wasn't paying attention to his first couple of frames. However, then I caught him strike one. I noticed that while his release was very unorthodox (not to say mine is textbook), he managed to get some hook on it (in case you are wondering he is a righty, so it hooks to the left).

I watched the next few frames here and there that Ray threw and noticed that he had a considerable amount of control over the ball, again give his unorthodox release I guess I was just surprised. There were a couple of moderately difficult spares that Ray picked up during the next game and a half. He also guttered a few, but at least he did it in the right gutter, which in my opinion is less of a sin when bowling hook than guttering in the left.

Oh yeah, did I mention the lanes were DRY. I mean normally Highland's lanes are basically dripping wet with 'lane conditioner', but not that morning. I think they did not bother to 'oil' the lanes that morning.

While Ray was not playing against Jeremy or I, he did manage to beat us. His score was a 133 and Jeremy's was a 130 and mine, well as I said mine was around a 120 or so.

I was intrigued enough with Ray that I just had to ask him how long he has been bowling.

I mean, my Pops has been bowling since he was a teenager (if memory serves like 14 or 15). And with that my Pops can come down here and use the house balls and beat me in my own alley. I know with a significant amount of experience you can continue to be good at anything, pretty much anytime or anyplace.

I was expecting that Ray had been bowling since the 1940s or something.

Nope, if I heard Ray correctly, he started bowling in 1988. I asked him how long he had been bowling 'hook'. He held up his hand which was pretty gnarly (I can't figure out a better way to describe it), he explained that he had BAD arthritis and had been bowling hook since shortly after he had started bowling.

Ray stated that when he was in league back in the '90s he had about a 200 average and that in his later years here his average was in the 150s.

I informed him that I wish I could have had an average that good and that I really hope that I am still bowling (and as good as he was) when I am his age. He sort of chuckled and said 'Thank You'.

I will have to keep an eye out for Ray and if I see him again at the lanes again I will see if I can buy him a Coke or a tea or something.

Right about now you must be asking "So what is with the 'fistful of quarters'?"

It all started back when Gina and I had Easter Dinner @ Jeremy & Nicole's.

I believe it was while we were waiting for dinner, I was flipping through the available movies to watch on the VoD (Video on Demand) as we were in the market for something to watch. While flipping through the available titles, I came across one called 'King of Kong', before I could read the rest of the title I had already pressed the 'Watch Preview' button. (Full Movie Name: 'The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters')

The preview started up and I was quite amazed at what came on the screen over about the next two minutes.

I mean, there was one sound-bite in there that was pure comic genius (from a purely, 'Are you fscking kidding me?' stand point).

"No matter what I say, it draws controversy. It's sort of like the abortion issue. "
-- Billy Mitchell, The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters

Ummm, so yeah. On the sheer audacity of that comment alone Jeremy and I vowed that we had to watch the movie. The wives pretty much instantly stated that they wanted nothing to do with the movie, given that it was a movie about Donkey Kong and two gamer (geeks) journey to the top.

Well, last night Jeremy and I watched the movie and were amazed at the what I can only call the 'geek sub-culture' that was caught on film.

The movie outlines the journey of Steve Wiebe (pronounced: /ˈwiːbi/), who decided that he wanted to become the best Donkey Kong game player ever. I will admit that I don't remember the specific day that he 'broke' the score, I should have been taking notes while watching the movie. But here is the deal, Steve had a purchased a Donkey Kong game at placed it in his garage.

Pretty sure he had started playing back in 2003, at some point he had determined that he was good enough to break the world record, held by Billy Mitchell. However, apparently due to a casual friendship with one 'Mr. Awesome' Steve's video taped score submission was dismissed. The reason being is that at one point one of the boards in the game had gone bad, and Ray ' Mr. Awesome' Shlidt was kind enough to purchase Steve a new one.

Unbeknown to Steve, there is bad blood between Ray and Billy. And therefore it was instantly assumed that the board had been tampered with and that was how Steve was able to beat Billy's score. Did I mention that Billy had the high-score for about 20 years.

20 YEARS!!!

In 20 years time, no one managed to beat Billy's high-score, not even Billy. (Not that I am sure Billy was even attempting to beat his own score.)

Well, the rest of the movie outlines Steve's struggle to achieve the winning score in a live venue. And possibly due to the editing of the movie (and bear in mind movies are supposed to be interesting, so unfortunately sometimes facts get left on the cutting room floor) it appeared that Billy was a complete and douche-bag to Steve. Not once meeting him 'on the field of battle' for a live head-to-head match of Donkey Kong.

And to add to the douche-bag effect, when Steve managed to beat Billy's high-score, in person, LIVE at the FunSpot, Billy seemingly, magically produces a video tape that puts Billy up over the million point mark, and thus beating Steve's recently set new high-score.

But to me what makes the tape submitted a douche-bag move is that the tape is shitty, there are 'copy-defects' which make it look like the score jumps at certain spots. Throughout the movie the integrity of the films that the Twin Galaxies referees painstakingly review is brought to light (I mean fscking painstakingly, for no money, I mean NO money for watching hours upon hours of mind numbing game play). However, when the this crappy copy shows up at the FunSpot, there is no question that it is a valid copy, because it came from Billy.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot to mention that Billy has some disciples that appear to do his bidding, maybe disciples isn't the right word, possibly minions would better describe these creepy guys that secretly phone Billy throughout the movie to report on Steve's movements or scores or whatever the fsck else.

I mean in regards to the copy, ummmm you are caught on tape talking about how important LIVE record setting is, and then when you have a score that is over a million you submit a SHITTY copy. Fsck that, burn a fscking DVD, fscking send in the fscking master or something.

On that same note, in my opinion because of the way that Twin Galaxies treated Steve (as per how things were recorded in the movie) they should have rejected Billy's score submission until they could review the master copy. I am not saying Billy cheated, I am just saying that it really chaps my ass when the rules are bent for one person but not for another (particularly when the rules don't appear to be written down away).

Well in the end, all of Steve's attempts to beat the new million plus Donkey Kong score set by Billy were for naught. But the movie did have a bit of a happy ending, Steve managed to beat Billy's score on video tape.

Go Steve.

Now, I will give the Twin Galaxies folks one point of credit. They gave Steve the credit for having the highest LIVE Donkey Kong score, eventually Steve held the highest LIVE donkey Kong Score and the recorded one as well. However, from looking over the Twin Galaxies site, it would appear that Billy has beaten Steve's score.

I mean, if you have some time to kill and you are at all interested in geek culture or video games, please find a copy of The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters.

Various Reference Sites
---------------------------------
http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=22&pi=2&gi=3852&vi=22
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Kong:_A_Fistful_of_Quarters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mitchell_(gamer)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/quotes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_(video_game)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wiebe
http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/the_king_of_kong_continued/1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/synopsis

Well, all for now....

Laterz

I bought Gina a bowling ball and some shoes last night. Yes, I bought her a bowling ball bag as well.

Then we went bowling. Her first couple of games were ok. She didn't break any personal records or anything. However, mid-way through her third game, she started to get the hang of it. She had a couple of spares and a strike. In my opinion she had two strikes, as the second spare she got was basically a strike, but on the second ball.

She was jazzed up about that third game, 105 being her personal best so far. Thus, we had a bowl a few more games.

Over the few years that gina has been down here, she has watched me bowl and even played a few games now and again. However, her wrist has never been the same since the MSU music school. My hopes were confirmed last night, in that her having her own ball, drilled specifically for her, would help her wrist out.

After 5 games, her wrist was only mildly sore. Mine on the other hand was sort of torn up, course I started drinking after the first two games, so I am sure my coordination had something to do with it towards the end.

The lanes were bone dry, at least in terms of where they needed to have some oil. This meant that the difficulty level was up for me. But I will take bone dry over them being wet any day.

I opened with a 169. I had left the first four frames open, but then in the 5th I put an X up on the board. Then another and another. My second game was also a 169. Fourth game was about a 149, followed by a 137 (3 beers by this point) and finally a 147 (four beers and a second wind.)

Gina's average for the night was like a 58, mine was a 154.

We are going to try to become regulars for Highland Lanes' Sunday Morning bowling special. Then I think we will try to find a doubles league.

Oh yeah, if you need to get a bowling ball and you are remotely in the Austin area. You need to go see Jimmy over at Interstate Lanes. The pro shop there is open from 12-8pm M-F and like 11-5pm Saturday (i might have the Saturday hours wrong).

Jimmy used to have the pro shop setup over at Showplace Lanes, now known as Austin 300. Apparently Showplace gravitated towards "Corporate" bowling vs League Bowling.

Anyway, back to the grind.

Laterz

It rained and rained and rained.

Then it finally stopped.

We had a wonderful turkey dinner that Gina prepared.

And have been sampling chocolates from Rachel's store that she works at in Portland.

I believe we are going to the bowling alley. I will let you know more about that later.

I have to go now, I'm being chastised for being on the computer.

Laterz