June 18, 2012

Tip of the Week

Playing in Different Time Zones.

Friday Exhaustion

I've spent much of the last week learning to do page layouts for Print on Demand and for Kindle ebooks, and have been up sometimes almost around the clock doing the layouts for some of my books. I first did "Pings and Pongs," my collection of science fiction & fantasy stories as a practice run as it would be easier than the others, since there are few graphics. Since then I've been doing both my new book, "Table Tennis Tactics: A Thinker's Guide" and "A Professional Table Tennis Coach's Handbook." Later I'll do my other three table tennis books.

Unfortunately, I'm paying the price. On Friday I showed up as a practice partner for our Elite Junior Session, and could barely stay awake. Just trying to play gave me a headache, stomachache, and I started getting dizzy. Finally, after about 45 minutes, I had to stop and go home to get some sleep.

Despite a good night's sleep, I was still exhausted on Saturday. I had a relatively full schedule (five hours), and there were times when my legs were in open rebellion, but I got through it. I had another good night's sleep, but Sunday I was still pretty tired. However, there are signs I'm getting better. Unfortunately, with eleven consecutive weeks of training camps starting this morning, I have a feeling I'd better get used to being exhausted.

I do have a few things I'm doing to combat this. The rest of the summer I'm going to regularly go to bed at 11PM, though I will, as always, read for a while before actually going to sleep. (I'll be getting up by 7AM each morning to do my blog before leaving for the club.) I'm also going to focus on eating well. I generally do, but I'll make it higher priority this summer. Also, on the advice of a doctor at the club, I've been taking "B Complex" vitamins (as well as the regular multivitamins I already take) as a supplement. I have no idea if it'll help, but he says it'll help an active person regain energy. We'll see.

One side effect is that I'm probably going to go from doing page layouts at warp drive to a mere sub-light speed. But I still hope to have all the books in POD and ebook format by the end of the summer.

Summer Camp Side Effects

• Side Effect One: I'll have lots and lots to blog about.
• Side Effect Two: I'll have less and less time to blog.

President Obama and the ICC Table Tennis Shirt

Here's President Obama holding up an ICC Table Tennis shirt that he accepted from three table tennis Olympians (Timothy Wang, Ariel Hsing, Lily Zhang). He also got a paddle signed by the three, held by Anil Godhwani (standing next to Obama). At first I thought it must be photoshopped, but after investigation, it's for real.

Here are some pictures of Obama playing table tennis, from CelebritiesPlayingTableTennis.com (a site I maintain).

photo1 photo2 photo3 (Photos 2 and 3 are from a picture on the wall at the White House, contributed by Timmy La)

Here are pictures of Obama playing table tennis with David Cameron, the prime minister of England:
Obama and David Cameron, Prime Minister of England:
photo1 photo2 photo3 photo4 photo5 photo6 photo7 photo8 photo9

And while we're at it, here are two pictures of First Lady Michelle Obama playing table tennis:

photo1 photo2

Best Table Tennis Shots of 2011

I don't think I've linked to this video (3:48). Lots of great shots!

Twisted Table

Now this would be tough to play on. (I already had a picture of this table in the "Fun and Games" section, but this is a better and closer one.)

Non-Table Tennis -SF & Fantasy Sales

Recently I've been on a splurge in my science fiction and fantasy writing sales. On Saturday I sold my sixth short story in six weeks, "Running with the Dead" (7400 words) to Buzzy Magazine, a pro-paying market, along with two of the other sales. (A "pro" paying market is one that pays at least 5 cents/word.) This is the story of a dead kid who wants to attend high school and run as a miler on the track team. He faces not only public pressure to quit - the country is mostly against letting dead people attend school - but also the captain of the track team and leader of the "Mile Mafia," the very person who murdered him one year before.

The six sales add up to $1080 in income. Pretty soon this'll eclipse my coaching income!!! Here's my science fiction & fantasy page.

I've also been on a couple of covers recently, for Flagship Magazine and Penumbra Magazine. Below are all thirteen covers - click on the image to see the full-sized one. 

Thirteen  Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazines with my name on the cover. Click to see full-sized versions!

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