Bullet Ball...

For the many, many people who are wondering "Since Torres isn't posting on his blog, what on Earth IS he doing?" here is just a sample:

I've been thinking, recently, (like the last five minutes really): whatever happened to that guy on American Inventors who claimed to have invented "Bullet Ball"? In case you didn't watch, (few did) Bullet Ball is a game where you take a ball about the size of a golf bal, but not as hard as one, and try to smack it past your oppenent on the opposite side of a round table. You're thinking "Ping Pong" on a round table, but no. No paddles, for instance...Oh Hell, just take a look.

There. In any event, when he first explained the game, I thought he was like one of those guys on American Idol who can't sing, but thinks he can. I thought "I've played that game a thousand times in the school cafeteria with a wad of paper...and an opponent. That's not even an invention...If that's an invention, then I'll invent a game where you kick a can or one where you skip stones on a body of water. Or falling down."

So it wasn't the invention I was really thinking about. It was his story. In trying to get this game to the market, he claimed to have gone through $100,000 in American money (which was worth something then). And he lost his wife. Not carelessly in some mall, but through divorce. Just imagine the heated arguments.

In any event, the people on the show told him he didn't have anything, and I agreed (not that anyone asked). The man cried. Told them that he had to have something there, otherwise his life was without meaning. That's tough. I meant really tough. Noir on a lot of levels. Before he left the room, I wanted him to have a better product, know what I mean? I thought if he had only put his energy into a good idea, he'd have something. I just couldn't see a way around the game he had developed. The product simply wasn't up to snuff. Or so I thought.

Now I see the website. The table seems snazzy, the video looks like people are having fun (I don't currently have audio) and there seems to be market potential for instance in occupational therapy. I don't know how far this can go. I don't see it sweeping the nation any time soon, but then it does look like the guy actually had something, and you know what? That's remarkable.