Money Making Schemes

For those who have played a fair amount of tennis in their lives with a wooden racquet, is it the same game?

It has been said by mostly retired pro tennis player like McEnroe, for example, that with the new racquets in use today, tennis isn’t really the same game. I learned and played most of my tennis with wood racquets. Now that my son is getting into tennis, I’ve started playing again, and this time with the new lightweight non-wood racquets.

When I was playing with my son yesterday, I had the funny feeling in the middle of a rally that I really wasn’t playing “tennis” anymore. I was aware that I was putting spin on the ball and hitting backhands like I never used to be able to when I played with a wooden racquet. It’s just easier and almost seems too easy, which is where the problem comes in.

For a moment or two, I almost felt like I was playing some kind of hybrid sport that was a cross between tennis and badminton, for example. I mean the racket I was using was so light, I became aware that I was “wristing” a lot of shots, i.e., just hitting them with a flick of the wrist, and actually making good shots that way, and with an old wood racquet, I doubt I would have even been able to get such a shot over the net.

I believe, if my memory serves, that the string tension is also higher on the new racquets than it was on the wood ones, so the net (no pun intended) effect reminded me more of playing badminton than the type of tennis I grew up playing

After all, with a badminton racket, you use your wrist a lot and just flick shots over the net. Anyway, when I had this sudden perception I was playing what seemed like badminton/tennis, I actually got a little depressed. (BTW, if somebody decided tennis as it is played now is indeed a different sport and wanted to rename it, what might they call it: “tennisminton” or how ’bout “badtennis”? Hmmm…)

Anyway, while having these mid-rally musings while playing with my son the other day, I just lost a little of the thrill of the game and started wondering if it was still a challenging sport compared to the way it used to be. I mean, with all the running, etc. it’s still a good, sweaty game which helps burn off the calories, but is it just a tad too easy? It seems like a lot more people play the sport than used to also, because of the new racquet technology which enables you to punch the ball more easily and get by with less than solid technique, etc.

My eight year old, of course, who is just learning the sport and can already hit the ball almost as well as some beginning adults I’ve seen , had no idea what was going through my head as we were playing. I didn’t tell him what was on my mind, because he really likes the game and I wouldn’t want to put any type of damper on his enthusiasm.

I’ve already mentioned to him at one point or another that they only had wood racquets when I started playing tennis, and he just kind of reacts the same way as when I tell him they didn’t have PCs when I was a kid or cell phones for that matter… like it’s only marginally interesting but not very important in the grand scheme of things.

Today, I found myself going on eBay and checking out wood rackets that people are selling. I even found some supposedly brand new Wilson Jack Kramer autographs that some company still had stored in their warehouse somewhere and were selling, unstrung, for 125 bucks or something. I always wanted one of those when I was younger, but don’t know if I want to put down a chunk of money like that with the additional money for having it strung. Then I even began wondering if anybody knows how to string wooden rackets anymore?!

In my own defense, for those who think I’m just an anachronism who should keep such thoughts to myself, I know I’m not totally alone in this old vs.new tennis racquet quandary… apparently McEnroe suggested at one point that players go back to using wood racquets, and I read the other day that Sampras said when he started teaching his son how to play, he was going to have him use a wood racquet to learn good groundstrokes and placement, etc.

Of course McEnroe is only a few years younger than I, not sure how old Sampras is, but at least you can’t just accuse them of being know-nothing geezers, because I’m sure they could still whip the butts of anybody who happens to be reading this right now, (unless there are some top-seeded pros who like to check into Yahoo! Answers/ Tennis every once in awhile to find out what we’re saying about them (?) )

Anyway, if anybody found this posting interesting enough to have read this far, I’d welcome any comments on this whole issue of wood vs. high tech racquets and whether the game of tennis is really “too easy” now, or just different, or indeed, whether any of this even matters to anybody but John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, and myself (at least I’m in good company, right?)
Lots of really interesting and informative answers here. Definitely getting my money‘s worth….*smile*

What do these lyrics mean?

[Ol’ Dirty Bastard]
Man man look at the sky
All the stars man the stars is beautiful tonight
Look at em

[Mya]
Ghetto supastar that is what you are
Comin from afar reachin for the stars
Run away with me to another place
We can rely on each other uh huh
From one corner to another uh huh

[Pras Michel]
Some got hopes and dreams
We got ways and mean
The supreme dream team always up with the scheme
From hub caps to sellin raps, name your theme
My rise to the top, floatin on this cream
Who the hell wanna stop me, I hated those who doubt
A million refugees with unlimited warranties
Black Ceaser, datin top divas
Diplomatic legalese, no time for a visa
I just begun, I’ma shoot them one by one
Got five sides to me somethin like a pentagon
Strike with the forces of King Solomon
Lettin bygone be bygone and so on and so on
I’ma teach these cats, how to live in the ghetto
Keepin it retro-spective from the get go
Lay low, let my mind shine like a halo
P-p-p-politic with ghetto senators on the d-low

[Mya]
Ghetto supastar, that is what you are
Comin from afar, reachin for the stars
Run away with me, to another place
We can rely on each other, uh huh
From one corner to another, uh huh

[Ol’ Dirty Bastard]
My eyes is sore, bein the senator
Behind closed doors hittin truths to the seafloor
The rich don’t know, ignore, this tug of war
While the kids are poor open new and better drug stores
So I became hardcore, couldn’t take it no more
I’ma reveal everythin change the law
I find myself, walkin the streets
Tryin to find what’s really goin on in these streets

[Pras Michel]
Now every dog got his day, needless to say
When the chief away, that’s when them cats wanna play
I told you, messin around you fools like Cassius Clay
Stretch my heater make you do a pass de bourree
Kick your balls like Pele, pick em doin ballet
Peak like Dante, broader than Broadway
Get applaud like a madator, cry yellin ole
Who the hell wanna see me, from B.K. to Cali

[Mya]
Ghetto supastar, that is what you are
Comin from afar, reachin for the stars
Run away with me, to another place
We can rely on each other, uh huh
From one corner to another, uh huh

[Pras Michel]
Just when you thought it was safe in a common place
Showcase your finest is losin fast in the horse race
Two face, gettin defaced out, like Scarface
Throw your roll money let me put on my screw face

[Ol’ Dirty Bastard]
And I’m paranoid at the things I said
Wonderin what’s the penalty from day to day
I’m hangin out, partying with girls that never die
See I was pickin on the small fries, my campaign tellin lies
I was just spreadin my love, didn’t know my love
Was the one holdin the gun and the glove
But it’s all good as long as it’s understood
Let’s all together now, in the hood

[Mya]
Ghetto supastar, that is what you are
Comin from afar, reachin for the stars
Run away with me, to another place
We can rely on each other, uh huh
From one corner to another, uh huh

[Pras Michel]
All stars

[Mya]
Ghetto supastar, that is what you are
Comin from afar, reachin for the stars
Run away with me, to another place
We can rely on each other, uh huh
From one corner to another, uh huh

RHH: Rate this verse?

I wrote this trying to emulate the style of Gang Starr, I used similar rhyme schemes and it’s to be said with similar inflection and flow.

Wealth?
You want wealth?
Here’s your wealth
You’re in good physical and mental health.
It’s funny the problems that arise from writing a rhyme.
And discovering the sublime in 4:4 time
As a new kid on the scene, still not in his prime.
I’m not stressing though,
Cus I’m just being me, trying to learn and grow
And I’ve learned that happiness comes in many ways
Be it family, women, friends or praise.
But neither happiness nor wealth can truly amaze
Be it covered it thorns, or sugarcoated and glazed.
What would you sacrifice for people to remember your name?
I guess its just the price of fame.
MJ learned it the hard way
That it’s hard to make the public see it our way
In his case, the price was his life
Pressured to perform, how’s that for strife?
Today’s lesson, as a wise man once said
Fyck it. That wise man’s dead.
Instead
Learn to grow, listen to the unsaid
Read the unread,
The poorest man is the richest, while the rich are really poor.
But as the years go by, both are equally obscure
And I don’t mean to sleuth
God strike me down if im ever uncouth
But here’s the honest truth.
We all haves eyes bigger than our stomachs and a sweet tooth.
And I know its cliché
But money never bought happiness anyway
Sorry, I didn’t check the category….

I would like to break up my bro with his gold digging girlfriend?

My brother has a girlfriend who is not only a bitch but also a gold digger who thrives in attention seeking scheme.

I am not perfect but this girl is not even trying.

She finished college about a year ago. Before then she had dumped my brother because he could not provide the life he wanted. He had to travel about 300km to go and visit her and then she would refuse to see him because she was with another guy.

Then he got a well paying job and she came begging him for another chance. She started complaining that he does not spend as much time with him because he was allways at work. Mark you she has never attempted to look for a job and does not subsidise the expenses. All her costs and general expenses are up to my brother. Being stranded he quit his job and started his own business to be with her. She even made her the receptionist.

Then she went again saying that the job she had paid like a house help and that undermined. She came to work late and spent all the money from the business. When they had a problem paying the bills she quit the job and got another guy.

my brother was at it again to get her back. He got funding from well wishers and the business and the business started thriving. Now she is back and wants another chance and wants my brother to give her kids in addition to marrying her in a grand wedding.

I would like my brother to get a girl who appreciates his efforts and will be with him through thick and thin. This girl has to go before he starts to make demands that will run down my brother’s business.

How do I go about it?

Afraid my daughter will turn into…?

My daughter is thirteen years old, but she’s so completely different from all the other young teens I see and I don’t know if it’s for the better or worse. She has no social life, and never sees any of her friends out of school even when I suggest it. She spent her entire winter break up to this point “scam baiting”, purposefully getting scam on her email and creating a bunch of fake identities to trick them. She even sent some of them viruses, but I told her not to do that and she says she stopped. She has no femininity and never brushes her hair unless I force her to.

She’s really smart I know that, she is very interested in Einstein’s theories of relativity and is trying to disprove them. She doesn’t take math at school because the middle school has no courses for her, she has to study independently on the internet. She’s the only student doing that. When she was younger I tried to get teachers to let her skip grades, but her lack of social skills prevented this. She also talks about politics with my husband’s friends whenever they come over, and she understands how the government works and has her own ideas.

She’s so deceptive, though. I don’t mean that she lies, but she loves to hack and hacked into the school’s computer system last year and almost got expelled. As I said before she tricks scammers, gives them viruses, sometimes giving them each other’s email address and playing them against each other. She tells me excitedly about all the fake accounts she makes for some website, and manipulates whatever is going on there, just for fun. When she was younger (4th grade), she got in trouble for causing trouble around the school and setting up circumstances so that a few “bullies” would be blamed and it almost worked. She even made a bunch of fake notes and everything. She doesn’t think she’s doing anything wrong.

Once, at McDonalds, after studying the menu, she came up with a whole scheme about how you can get back more money than you spent if you have a few accomplices, and you all buy things but return different things and so forth. She likes going to supermarkets because she finds out capitalistic society “interesting”, how they place the milk in the back so that you’ll pass by more merchandise and buy more and how gift cards are just borrowing money from you without interest.

She’s not a bad kid, she has a very strong sense of justice and is idealistic. But I’m really worried about how she lacks social skills and doesn’t care for friends, and enjoys lying and manipulation so much. I’m afraid she’s going to grow up to be some illegal hacker or something, or some “evil mastermind”. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I have no other way to put it. She’s only thirteen, shouldn’t she be giggling with her girl friends, not doing, well, what she does?

Should I be worried about her, or let her do what she does? Could she possibly grow up to be a criminal? Should I try to get her to be more normal? What would be the best for her?
She doesn’t write the viruses herself. A lot of the spammers send her attachments with viruses, and she knows how to rename them without opening them and send them to different scammers. At least, that’s how she explains it. I don’t really know how it works.