Crazy Ace's Home Page

So why "Crazy Ace"? This is kind of a second nickname I had in high school that never really caught on outside of people in my math classes. It was actually during my sophomore year when I went to study for a trig test at my friend Brooks' house. He lived far away and I couldn't yet drive, so I caught a ride with a girl named Autumn who was also going to study. (On a side note, when I moved away from home, I found a pottery mug that she gave me at the end of the year. Thanks, Autumn!) Anyway, at one point in the night we got pretty tired of studying and decided to play a game of ping-pong. I think the game started off as a type of "around the world," but at some point I just smacked the hell out of the ball. This kind of freaked some people out as a departure from my normal, quiet composure. Someone blurted out something like "Easy there, Crazy Ace," and the name stuck.

Then what about "Gantless"? This came from my friend Chad while we were practicing for the golf team during my freshman year of high school. The frame of the pair of eye glasses I wore at the time was manufactured by Gant. He looked at it and said "Gantless." I don't know why, exactly, but it stuck. No, I did not drop the 'r' from my name, and NO it's NOT spelled Gauntless!

Current Book: The book I'm currently reading is Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers by J. K. Rowling and translated by Jean-François Ménard.

Last Concert I Attended: Natalie MacMaster in Smothers Theatre at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California on April 28, 2006.

Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi!

Favorite Drink: Di Saronno Amaretto Sour

Favorite Color: Red

Number Two Fear: Claustrophobia. I don't mind tight spaces so much as long as I am in control of when I can get out. Being buried alive would probably be my greatest fear of death as I would be alive but unable to move. My friend Dan and I went on a tour of Chichén Itzá, the Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Penninsula near Cancún, Mexico in Spring 2001. The El Castillo pyramid was actually built over a smaller pyramid. You can go in-between the two pyramids to see a Chac Mool as well as a jaguar sculpture with jade eyes. However, it is very cramped and unbearably humid in the tunnel. I nearly lost it in the tunnel because you barely had enough room to walk one way down the tunnel, so to get out, you first have to walk all the way in and turn around. I was not able to find a photo of the tunnel, but trust me; it's small. You are not supposed to photograph the statues due to the flash destroying the color. Interestingly, there is no such restriction inside the Louvre.

Cats or Dogs? Cats. Cats are wonderful animals. Unfortunately, I am allergic to them. The only problem I have is if their fur or dander or whatever particles get transfered to your hand when you pet them ends up in my eyes. Robert De Niro said it best in Meet the Parents: "The dog is an emotionally shallow animal... But cats make you work for their affection. Cats don't sell out like dogs do."

Favorite x86 Processor Manufacturer: Intel

Favorite Fruit: Strawberries. But for a more exotic twist, I prefer Kiwi or Mango.

Favorite Candy Bar: Toblerone. This candy bar has a trademark triangular design. It is made in Switzerland with milk chocolate, honey, and almond nougat. After chewing one of the triangular pieces, the honey and almond nougat stick to your teeth. It's great. There is also a dark chocolate version and a white chocolate version. I love white chocolate. It's possible to find the smaller, 100g bar in the US, but not the 400g white chocolate bar. I have found it internationally in London Heathrow's terminal 4 and in the Zürich airport. I also have independent confirmation that the 400g white chocolate bars are available in the Paris Roissy (Charles de Gaulle) airport. When I visited Switzerland, I found the largest bar produced at Manor: a 4.5kg bar. Kilograms! That's like 10 pounds! It was CHF 84 (about $76), but I didn't know if it would fit in my suitcase for the trip back home.

Favorite Movie: Rain Man starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. When Charlie Babbitt's (Cruise) father dies, he feels cheated out of a $3 million inheritance that was left to an unnamed beneficiary. Charlie then discovers that it is his brother, Raymond (Hoffman), that was named. The only problem is that Raymond, the "Rain Man", is an autistic savant living in a world devoid of normal perception. Charlie abducts Raymond from the institution and takes him on a cross country trip in order to exhort his "fair share" of the inheritance. Presented in a serious manner and while technically a drama, this movie does have its humorous parts.

A neat bit of trivia about this movie involves the phone booth fart scene. The phone coversation was scripted, but the fart was not. It was completely ad libbed by Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Also, after this movie came out, it was eventually offered as an in-flight movie by airlines. However, the scene where Charlie is trying to get Raymond to fly back to LA was removed by every airline except for Quantas. In this scene Raymond spouts out dates for every major airline's crashes but notes that "Quantas never crashed."

Favorite Author: Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein is a science fiction writer. He has since passed away (1988) but his books are still avidly read by many science fiction enthusiasts. He was born on July 7, 1907 and became interested in writing after he was retired from active duty in the Navy. He saw an ad in a magazine sponsoring a science fiction writing contest so he decided to enter. After he had finished, he thought the paper was too good for the magazine so he sent it to a more prestigious one. They bought it. He began to write more, although they only bought one of his next six papers. They eventually all sold. He started writing to pay off a house mortgage but then found that he felt uncomfortable when not writing. Some books that I have read by Robert Heinlein are Between Planets, The Door Into Summer, Have Spacesuit -- Will Travel, Red Planet, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, I Will Fear No Evil, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Podkayne of Mars, and Stranger In A Strange Land.

Favorite Actress(es): Kate Bosworth, Sandra Bullock, and Evangeline Lilly.

Kate Bosworth

Kate Bosworth

Sandra Bullock

Evangeline Lilly

Come on, now. Everyone has a celebrity crush. I have a signed photograph of Kate Bosworth that I found on eBay, but I'm hoping I can get one personally signed one day. Her starring role in Blue Crush will definitely propel her career. She was born on January 2, 1983 in Los Angeles. She got her acting start at age 14 when she heard about an equestrian film (The Horse Whisperer). Not having an official headshot, she sent a Christmas card to the casting directors. Movies I have seen with Kate Bosworth are The Horse Whisperer, Remember the Titans, Blue Crush, The Rules of Attraction, Wonderland, Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, and Beyond the Sea.

Sandra Bullock became famous after her role as Annie in Speed. She was born July 26, 1964 in Arlington, Virginia. She is 5' 7½" tall and has auburn hair. The movies I have seen with Sandra Bullock are Hangmen, Religion, Inc. (aka A Fool and His Money), "Lucky/Chances" (TV), Who Shot Patakango, Love Potion No. 9, When the Party's Over, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, The Vanishing, Demolition Man, Fire on the Amazon, Speed, While You Were Sleeping, The Net, In Love and War, Two If By Sea, A Time to Kill, Speed 2: Cruise Control, The Prince of Egypt, Hope Floats, Practical Magic, Forces of Nature, Gun Shy, 28 Days, Miss Congeniality, Murder by Numbers, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and Two Weeks Notice.

Evangeline Lilly currently stars as Kate in ABC's Lost. She was born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada on August 3, 1979. She is 5' 5" tall and was found by the Ford modeling agency in Kelowna, British Columbia. She initially passed on the opportunity to become a model, but six months later she moved to Vancouver and changed her mind. She signed with Ford to help pay for her college tuition. She can also speak fluent French.

Favorite Music Artists: Natalie MacMaster and Bush.

My friend Cyrus introduced me to Natalie MacMaster back in college. She is an excellent Celtic fiddle player. I was absolutely amazed the first time I saw her in concert. I hadn't even listened to any of her music prior to the show. I've been to five of her concerts now: Early 1999 with Wendy MacIsaac in Boulder(?), Colorado; October 30, 1999 at the Gothic Theatre in Denver; October 21, 2000 at the Paramount Theatre in Denver; April 17, 2004 at the Old Settler's Music Festival in Austin, Texas; and April 28, 2006 in Smothers Theatre at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She is from Cape Breton (Canada). Her music is traditional Irish/Scottish but with some Canadian influence. I really enjoy her albums My Roots Are Showing and In My Hands. Her latest album, Blueprint, came out in September 2003 and it is also really good.

I liked Bush immediately after their album Sixteen Stone debuted in the US. My favorite song is "Machinehead" and I have seen them live twice in concert: May 27, 1997 at Fiddler's Green in Denver and May 6, 2000 at Red Rocks in Denver. Their second album, Razorblade Suitcase, had a different musical style to it. While I still enjoyed it, I liked Sixteen Stone more. Their third album, The Science of Things, is a bit more like Sixteen Stone. It is an overall good album, although a bit different than what I was expecting. Their latest album, Golden State, is also good. It has more of their traditional sound of the first and third albums, which I prefer.

Favorite Car(s): While searching for my car, I came across several options that appealed to me.  Click here to see the cars I considered and the one I decided to purchase.

Favorite Sport(s): Golf and Tennis. I enjoy playing golf because it's a way to get away from everything. I got started when I was younger because my family golfed a lot. I was on the golf team in high school, but never was ever really good. My best score is a 95 at Walking Stick in Pueblo, Colorado.

I have never really played much tennis. However, I really enjoy watching tennis on TV. Mario Tennis for the N64 and GameCube are both really fun games and have surely influenced me some.

The major tournaments I normally watch are the French Open in late May and early June, Wimbledon in late June and early July, and the US Open in late August and early September. The women's tennis is fun to watch because most often, the women don't have the same speed and power that the men do, so points are won with good tennis. The men's tennis is also fun because they have a lot more power in their shots and a lot of unbelievable tennis is played. I don't really have a favorite men's player, but my favorite women's player is Kim Clijsters.

Probably all sports use various words or phrases specific to their sport without defining them for those of us new to the sport. I've found an online glossary that describes most terms. I have tried to write a short FAQ here about some of the tennis terms. Feel free to correct me if necessary.

• What does it mean if someone hasn't dropped a set?

  I believe this means that the person in question has won all their matches in straight sets. That is, they have lost a set to their opponent during a match.

• What does it mean if someone is "on serve"?

  This means that each player has broken the other player's serve an equal number of times. The score is now the same as if each player had won every time they served.

• What is double break point (or double set point, triple match point, etc.)?

  I do not know if these are used as anything other than to state the score. For example, is the number of break points or match points used further along the road for scoring? More simply, what good is having two break points after the match is over?

  Double break point means the score is 15-40. The opponent has two chances to break the serve before the server can get to deuce. Double set point (and sometimes simultaneously double break point) means that someone has two chances to finish the game to win the set.

• What is a winner?

  A winner is a shot that lands in bounds but is not returned by the opponent.

• What is an error?

  An error is a shot that doesn't go over the net or lands out of bounds

• What is an unforced error?

  An unforced error occurs when a player hits the ball into the net or out of bounds.

• What is a forced error?

  A forced error is an error that occurs from a good shot by the opponent.