Diamonds to Pockets

Give it up IRS... Taxes are over rated

2009-04-17T13:11:00.019-06:00

"People need to take a risk with their life and live it. Otherwise they just sit around thinking they're living a fulfilled life, when really they're just waiting to die."

-- Myself when I was hungry

HELLO KIDDIES!!!

It's that time again... time for another blog post.

I'll say I gave up blogging for lent... but I don't practice Christianity, so that isn't true. But we're going to go with it anyways...

So over the past 97 weeks that I haven't posted, I've been playing very good pool.

As a matter of fact I've been playing well in every way... league, tournaments, gambling...

I'd say it's a hot streak, but I'm not sure since it's lasted longer than a week.

7 weeks of league without a single loss, sweet f'in' apples.

1 tourney that I placed in the money. Also my first tourney to place in the money... extra sweet.

1 tourney I placed one out of the money... damnit, so close.

money games that keep the action alive and I enjoy it more than league.

My league team is doing quite well this session... tied for first, until this most recent Tuesday, now we're tied for 2nd... and next week is play offs.

It's not a sanctioned league or anything so there's no Vegas in the future... at least not a league paid trip.

So far, this is probably the most favoriteststststtst league that I've played on/in. The people are fun, the games are challenging because the handicap is done right (listen up APA!)

The matches are serious enough to apply a little pressure, but overall the players really don't care win or lose, first or last place.

The other players on my team are excellent; I really enjoy playing with them week to week... I learn something every week... and I look forward to playing league (I know.. I know.... sappy) every day of the week until Tuesday rolls around.

anyway... enough with the sap.

A good friend of mine and I have been discussing doing some weekend projects (completely non-pool related) so you may see some of that here in the future... don't be surprised.

What we have in mind is exploring old abandoned buildings and such... take some pictures... and ultimately not go to jail.

And to keep it pool related... I've been watching...

The most common 8 ball shot by us hacks out there... is something pretty close to what you see in the diagram.

A lot of racks the 8 ball barely moves, then towards the end of the rack the player will either under hit it trying for the corner pocket leave but end up leaving a straight shot into the rail.... or over hit it trying to leave a shot for the corner... and end up with the same crap as before.

Either way... screwed.

So get out there... pay attention... and then get yourself familiar with this shot, it comes up more than you think... and WAY more than we want.

Depends on the angle... but the scratch shot is always avoidable with a little top or bottom.

Personally.... the bank is the most risk... but it's most playable, depending on the table.

Caution: Boring Pool Stuff Ahead

2009-01-16T17:27:00.005-06:00

"I really need to work on my break"
"Yeah, everyone does... even the pros."
conversation during a game

Back in May I re-posted a video from the blog by pool minnow, about how to have an incredible power break. I watched the video a few times... more often than not deciding the audio was terrible, and I wasn't dedicated to killing my hearing every time the cueball struck the rack. So many times I watched about 4 to 5 minutes... and then gave up and did something else.

When I watch a pro (on espn, youtube, propoolvideo, etc) I can see how their body moves and where the cueball goes. Watching how the cueball reacts tells me what the english does... watching the person's body tells me what the cuestick does. But what I can't see is where they want the cueball to hit when it gently touches the rack with the force of a sledge-hammer behind it. Where is the player looking in the rack, when they're aiming for the break.
Right then...

Because of this video I also decided that I would modify my break, 1 piece at a time.
I break from the right side of the table, this wouldn't be changing.
I use 2 different break spots... first spot is at the head string... 1 diamond in. As exact as I can get without busting out the tape measure.
I aim at different spots depending on what kind of rack I'm facing. I'll describe this part later... by this point, you'll probably have gotten bored and clicked away to another page, but maybe pretty pictures will keep you around (kat)

I took a single piece of magic from the video... went to a pool hall, and spent 4 hours breaking 8 and 9 ball racks.
And yea, I'm a geek... I actually took pen and paper, and charted my results. (I won't subject you to that though.) If you care to know... comment, or email... whatever.

Here's basically where I was aiming, and breaking from... with each change I did change the aim point, and the starting spot.

Where the chalk is = where my eyes are aiming

My first modification was to choke up on the cue stick. I'll talk about the 8ball rack. Pretty much always an 8 ball rack unless mentioned.

Before In the past I've always taken the break stick from the farthest point back as a comfortable grip would allow.
with this I was getting about ball to pocket out of 10 breaks, with a decent spread.

The Change When I approach the table... I have the stick just like a regular hit during a game. Before I bend over, I adjusted my grip about a full fist forward.

After With this change I was getting the same... 1 out of 10 racks. That's 1 out of 150 balls. Crap results.
But the spread did improve and I usually had 2 or 3 balls drift towards at least 1 pocket. Made for a lot of ducks, and an easy out for the other guy.

I'm not really happy with this modification.
Oh, my consistancy dropped too.

Before My next modifcation was to revert back to my original grip placement... but change the english.
I was using center english... I'd aim just a TOUCH lower than center, maybe 1/2 tip lower... because when I was hitting the cueball my stroke would end up hitting center. Yea, I've tested this. If you care to know how... comment, or email... whatever.

The Change Anyway... still knocking in 1 out of 150 balls, so I adjusted to hit the cueball 1/2 tip north... and about a full tip east.
Pretty close to 1, maybe 1:30 on the ball.

After I wasn't making any more, but the cueball did start moving the 8 a good amount... which was a wonderful thing.
Usually towards the side, but on occasion towards the corner.
Spread and make percentage didn't change... but I kept the change for a little while on the slim chance the 8 would drop during a match one day.

Before Long ago before I was conscious of my break results, I'd aim at a particular contact spot for a 9 ball rack... and a particular spot for an 8ball rack.
With a 9 ball rack this was no issue... but with the 8ball rack, there was so much more activity on the table I'd often forget exactly which aiming "point/spot" gave me the best results, translating into me forgetting where to aim.

The Change This is where the chart that I mentioned earlier, was most important.
I hit 10 racks... 1 stroke, same english, same stroke, different contact point, different starting position.
10 racks... then moved to next aim spot... 10 racks... next aim spot... finished all the spots... move to a different starting position... lather, rinse, repeat.

(kat) So I'm not going to describe it... I'm just going to make some cuetable pages, and hope you have java installed... if you don't, you're not going to see what I documented.

After Long Data Short... My best results were to aim from the head string, 1 diamond in, and aim for the far 2nd ball in the rack for as full a hit as possible... as if the head ball wasn't even there.
3 out of 10 racks, this dropped 2 balls. another 4 racks dropped 1, and 3 more came up empty.

The biggest change of all was my stance.
Before My normal break is was all arm. I'd ensure proper grip, ensure proper cueball placement, settle into my stance, take some practice strokes, pause, then pound the cueball as hard as my geeky arm could.

The Change As I'm settling into my stance I move my back foot forward about an inch. Just a guess... I move it forward enough to slightly bend my leg, but still have a stable stance. Lowering my hips a bit... I start my practice strokes.
When I'm ready (and I'm still working on this part coming naturally) I project my rear leg up and forward, and in 1 fluid flurry of motion... the cueball is sent flying towards the pack.

As my leg is extending my arm is also exstending to keep the cue level... my chest heaves forward a bit and my hips rise even with my fist. The moment my leg is fully extended my arm begins to accelerate forward... I do my best not to move my shoulder, and I push the cue stick into the middle of the table. At least that's my focus point.
My grip is still at the back of the stick
My aim is still at the 2nd ball in the pack, on the far side.
My english is just above and just barely to the right of center.

After 1 out of 15 balls drops. on average 1 per break... and I'm ok with this, because I'm almost always staying at the table.
Granted... every now and then I make 2, or 3 on the break... and 2 breaks later I make nothing. So it evens out to 1 per break.

If you've made it this far... wow.

Just wow.

So how do you break? Do you have a power break? Is your's a soft yet effective break? Share it in the coments.

Oh, and don't bother going into the detail I have in this post. Unless you REALLY REALLY want to, well then have at it.

Fact or Fiction? - Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

2008-12-19T14:04:00.004-06:00

Fact: Babies are born without logical thought. In some, this doesn't appear until the human reaches retirement age.

Today, I encountered one of these unfortunate beings.

I work in a call center... supporting computers and hating stupid people. One of the applications I support keeps track of orders taken from other companies (our competitors) that provide the same service that we do. Details aren't important... just understand that this application helps the middle man (our customer) keep track of all incoming and outgoing orders.

Call of the day:

caller says something to the effect of the following:

I sent 3 orders… Louis, Larry, Chad. Those are the names.

Louis went to My Company

Larry went to Competitor

Chad went to Competitor

We phoned all of them out. I put them into the system and marked them phoned. So I don’t understand why Louis is marked with My Company and Larry and Chad are marked Competitor

Shouldn’t they all be the same thing?

My voice says “Phoned out isn’t a wire service… they’re going to be different because you used different services. They’re all marked phoned, with this check box right here” I move my mouse and point to show member.

That doesn’t make any sense. Shouldn’t they still all be Competitor out?

The headset resonates “When you called the other florist, and gave them the order… did you 2 discuss payment via Competitor or My Company?”

Louis was Your Company… and the other 2 were Competitor.

“Ok then…" (Why are you calling?)

So why is Louis marked as Your Company?

“Because, you called, them… and will, be paying them… by way of My Company…...?" (Seriously?)

That doesn’t make any sense. Why are the other 2 marked Competitor then?

“You’re paying them via Competitor, are you not?”

No, I am.

“Ok… so to keep track of that… would you mark them Competitor Two?”

No, I’m not an idiot. I’d mark them Competitor.

“Ok… so if you’d mark them Competitor… and they’re marked Competitor… why do you think they’re marked Competitor?”

I’m not sure

Have you ever pissed in public?

2008-12-09T13:25:00.000-06:00

Current mood: amused

So we've all been in public, at least once... and had to take a piss, or shit, or do something to that effect. Some how, through some people's upbringing, the common unspoken rules of Pissing in Public bypassed they're brains.... and are rude... out right disturbing even.

Now I write this directed towards the men.... mostly. That's pretty much because I don't frequent the ladies room, so I don't know what kind of gross things happen over there on the other side of the wall, and some days... it's better that way.
But believe me, I know people... I've got insider agents that tell me how disgusting some of you women lurk!

For instance... for the men..... You walk into a bathroom with 2 stalls, and 3 urinals.... No one is in there... which urinal do you choose?
If you choose left or right.... you seem to know what you're doing. You know to put a urinal buffer between you and anyone who may walk in to take a piss after you.You can piss in public without making people feel like you're going to peek at their penis.
On the other hand... some men might say middle because it's the most comfortable or whatever they blame... who cares what the reason, 'cause when I walk in after you, and you've got your dick out... and you're makin' a river..... it's too late for me, I've got no where else to go without you lookin' at my junk, unless I dip into the stall.
Then I think, that you think, I'm insecure and have to piss in the stall to hide my size.
WRONG. I just don't want you lookin' at my cock.

1) Here's the Rule: More than 2 stalls... leave 1 between you and any *POSSIBLE* person to walk in. If some one's already in the middle... push them softly, center back, as if they were pissing in the woods, and jog out, act inconspicuous until they leave... then return for a proper piss.

Next up... Who all has been in a public bathroom and someone else is in there too... Midstream... this person knows what they're doin'... they're against the wall urinal.. leaving a buffer and then there's your urinal against the other corner.... no biggy right.
So you're feelin' ok, you whip it out and begin draining your log... and the dude says " `sup man?" Alright, who's been there? hands, anyone?
Yeah, don't be that guy.

I'm standing here, holding my cock.... and you wanna talk about the fuckin' weather? Get the hell outta here! I didn't come in here to talk to you about your shirt, or suggest you get high lights in your hair and explain that your shoes don't match your belt because it's after fuckin' labor day.

2) Here's the rule: DON'T TALK TO PEOPLE IN THE BATHROOM!! If you know the person your with, and you're settin' up a girl for your boy and you need to discuss tactics... don't do it while either of you are pissing, wait until he's done.
If you don't know the guy, don't say anything to the guy. Not once you've both passed that bathroom threshold... don't even nod. The ONLY exception is Rule 3.

Ever go to an Asian place for dinner, or maybe that taco shop that everyone warns about but goes there anyways.... and then go to the club/bar afterwards?
Here's the thing about takin' a shit in a club setting. First off... courtesy mother fuckin' flush. You drop a dumpling, flush... you drop a 13inch by 4incher... flush. Get that stink out, because otherwise you wreak, and so does your clothes... chicks do smell that, even if they're nice about it.
Next thing about it is watch for crabs. I know it's just a rumor and Myth Busters and whomever else has proved the theory wrong that you can get crabs off a toilet seat. But think about it gentlemen...... how many male whores sat where your ass is placed when you're cheek to porcelain... and how many more std's can men contract without symptoms? I won't get too detailed.
Plus, think of the people that work there...... do you really think they clean that shitter all that well? ------------- If you worked there, would you?
So you have a couple of options... you can hover over the toilet... but really... that's only practical in a port-a-john situation. Option B, grab some shit tickets (Toilet Paper) and place it on the seat. Don't forget the back edge too. Now you have a physical barrier between you and someone else's mistimed poo.

3) Not really a rule for this one... unless you were in a HELL of a hurry, and had to ask the guy in the stall next to you for some shit tickets... this is the ONLY time you should talk to someone else in the men's bathroom.

Ladies, your turn.... There's been reports of people going to the bathroom, and coming back in groups.... I understand... it's a little weird for men to get it, but there's been survey after survey to find out why.
Most common answers: They don't want to be raped, they're bored when alone in the bathroom, and simply put... the female gender are instinctively, the group type, while males are more independent.
What I figure is that you go to the bathroom in groups for a few different reasons.... mostly, (at least at the early 20 something ages and younger) it has to do with the guys. Either there's a creepy guy asking you to dance, to buy you a drink, or your favorite color of ice cream... whatever the case may be, that's what your wing woman is for... to save you. "Hey! I have to go pee!" your natural reply is "Me TOO! Be right back.." with a smile because you know this is your chance to escape.
I believe another reason is so that you can decide what part of the club/bar to go after getting the current guy's number.... that way no one looks lost or more drunk than you actually are.
Last one, because you women (most that I've encountered, not all) have bladders the size of oysters... I swear! So you all do have to pee, or just because someone mentions pee... you now really do have to pee as well.
Women are women... whatever.

Rule 4) Women, whatever.

If it's your time of the month.... be polite about it!!!
People, people people, people.... seriously. If you don't wear a pad, then know what to do with the tampon when you're done with it. For instance... Don't put it in the god damned toilet! TRASH CAN! Further more, don't put the wrapper, plastic shell of the new tampon, and the old tampon in the toilet.... DISGUSTING!!! Try the TRASH CAN ON FOR SIZE!!!
Believe me, people know when you're the last one out of the bathroom and they walk in, and just happen to use the same toilet.... Then they tell their friends.
Seriously ladies..... that's gross.

Rule 5) Don't put your tampons (or pads) in the toilet! Sicko... give kids cancer doin' shit like that.

Men.... remember rule 1-3... 4 too if you're wise.

Women... Pay attention to rule 5, jesus.

When the rolls are against you, hang in there

2008-11-13T10:58:00.004-06:00

The picture here...

not that it's a bad thing ...

just that it's a funny thing. To me.

Thought I'd share what was left in my cubical on election day (And everyone I work with's cubical)

Tuesday night was a hell of a league night.

It was a race to 5, and I was spotting 3 games.
He took the lag, broke dry, and I chose solids. As the game went on it came down to 3 balls on the table... The 8, The Cueball, and one of my solids.
He was up to smack the 8 in...

He missed it by a half diamond, but laser-sighted the cueball directly into the corner pocket.

I don't like winning that way, but a win is a win.

Next rack I break but nothing drops. He takes down around 3 or 4 solids and misses. I'm on stripes, I run 6 and play safe... but miss the position and he has a shot.
He takes the table down to him and the 8 again... This one is a much more likely "make it and scratch all in the same shot" kind of angle.
The cut was so thin that even top or bottom wouldn't help, if it did... it's be a miracle.

So he shoots, he scores, he scratches.
My point.

So I'm 2 up and he's done it all by himself.

3rd game looks familiar at the end... clean table, and I keep letting him back at the table.
Maybe I'm just getting the rolls and that's giving me the game?
In any case... he's on the 8, and it's a cut almost down the rail, where he has to hit it with speed, but the chance of a cross side scratch is pretty likely.
So he hits it... the 8 walks down the cloth and the cueball sprints back and forth and eventually comes to rest right in front of the side pocket... the 8 sees this and also stops in front of the corner pocket.
I run 2 and the 8 drops.
I'm 3 up... now it's an even race.

ok, now this is the part of the movie where the bad guy turns out to be a spy for the good guys and ends up making the doctor of some fancy hospital do some crazy research or crazy surgery so he can complete his mission.

I break again... come up dry, but the table is a beautiful spread. Something little girls lay awake at night staring at the ceiling, dreaming of seeing something so sweet at their wedding. Perfect and splendid.

He takes solids and starts getting amazing rolls... aim for a shot in the corner and it rattles somehow into the side pocket on the same rail, kind of rolls. Being APA rules... slop plays.

He wins that game... then the next game the rolls are still going his way
Completely NOT on purpose... he safes me like 4 times in a row. I feel like I'm playing someone that's never picked up a cue before, so the balls always get moved around and there's absolutely no strategy or concept of english. Just a bunch of hit and hope....... and it's working.

Hill/Hill and a few balls off the table... he hits something weird and the only balls resting on the the green plateau.

I'm stripes. You... the reader... are stripes.

There aren't ANY other balls on the table. You've got a super easy out... but you're left with this.
Not even a jump shot available.

UGH!
Hence the title... When they're not going your way, give it a minute. Murphy's law works for everyone... at least when I'm at the table.

Oh yeah, somehow from this he got ball in hand and cleaned up... me losing the match 3/2.

Small town, Big Times

2008-10-08T19:02:00.003-06:00

Last week I was on yet another business trip.
A small town with less than 10,000 people called "Jasper"

I arrived in this tiny little town to realize they enjoy country music, religion, and bingo.
Yes my friends, Bingo... just like the child hood song.

Oddly enough, in a tiny little town like this...it's common to have a bar on every corner.
There were literally 2 bars in the entire town. So forget about my goal (pool hall)

But there was a ton of bingo parlors.

My first night I slept a restless slumber.
During the day I asked around about a place to go play pool... refered to the bowling alley I started my drive.

On the way there I saw a little place called O'Malley's
An irish bar by the name, and the beer in the bottles behind the shelf I rested my elbows.

First thing the barkeep says to me when I walk in is "Are you going to stay for the pool tournament?"
Well, now that you mention it...

They had 5 barboxes and about 4 sticks on the wall. Would you believe that not a single stick was worth a dime?
beautiful things one finds in a bar
/sarcasm

Apparently this place also has open tables mon, tue, and wed.
No pool hall in town, but I found the place I'm going to be.

So I play pool for an hour or so with a half assed piece of twig and one of the guys that works there comes over and offers to play.
So we play and it comes up that I'm going to be in the tourny... so he offers that I can use one of his sticks.

Sweet mother load of apples.

So let's count here...
small town... so I'm not expecting to play any pool.
I accidentally stumble into a bar and find 5 tables
all 5 are wide open for the next 3 days
and there's a double elimination pool tourny for cheap.
it's going to be a good week.

so I get some practice in with the pool stick for about an hour before the tourney starts. Flip for the break... heads... tails lands and I'm rackin'
Every match is a race to one... good luck.

He breaks... 8 ball drops.
There goes my free space, right dead center on my bingo card.

I'm in the losers bracket... I come up against a guy that showed he's got some speed in an earlier game I was watching.

Flip... Heads... Tails up... I rack.
Break... open table.

I play a connect the dots run down to the 8 and bobble it... he misses and leaves perfectly straight in, then pushes the 8 in to shake my hand.

B14, I20, O55, N43 and my bingo card is getting darker.

Next match is against a shorter, fluffier guy
Flip... Heads... Tails up... I rack... again.
Break... drops a stripe but no shot. Plays safe
A couple of clusters bother the layout... I knock in a couple balls
then break out the cluster I'm most worried about, playing safe at the same time.
He kicks, leaves a shot... I finish the rack.

Next match... Older fella with a hat on
Flip... Heads... Tails up... I rack. What the shit?
He breaks, makes 2 solids and runs down to the 8.
I'm feeling the end of this tourney is on the tip of my cue stick... and I'm not going out like this.
He (luckily) missed position and had a tough bank on the 8... ended up double kissing and leaving me a shot.
I run down and play safe behind 2 balls blocking the 8.
He kicks for a 3 rail hit and gives up ball in hand.

Another 5 bingo squares go dark on my card.

Flip... Tails... Tails up... I break.
bout damn time... damnit
I break... make nothing but leave the rock on the end rail and some how, every shot is a combination.
(I planned it that way lol)
He shoots... he misses... and I'm up.
I'm free wheelin' now... I don't even think about the table.
I just see it, and go. So this is what it feels like to eat a $45,000 bowl of ice cream in a 5 star resturant... nice.

anyway... I make a solid and I'm left funny
A bank drops the 5 in the corner
I play another and I miss ideal position
another solid drops and I'm stuck behind a 3 ball combo
I glance at it and hit the 7-14-3... 3 drops
I play the 7 and leave myself on the rail.
Frozen.
with a straight in shot on the 1 in the opposite corner.
My leave would have to either draw slightly, or at the very least stop... for the 8 in the side. 1mm forward and I'm stuck behind the 14 that just sank my 3 ball.
with a stick I've been using for about an hour... I crank up to about 80 degrees, center bottom english... aim at the 1 for the corner.

PreShot Routine pays off... I stroke hard and fast, before I have a chance to look at the pocket the 1 ball isn't on the table and I have a shot on the 8.

I drop this, and it's semi finals.
"Click"
Semi finals and all I need on my bingo card is 3 more squares and I've got a blackout for $150

Flip... Tails... Heads up... I rack.
Break drops the 8 and I'm out.

I really need to work on my break.
Either that or find out what I need to call before the flip.

I don't mind losing.
It's when i play like my hands are made of tires and my brain is made of mush
even if I win I feel like shit.

If I play my best and lose, I'm ok with that. I lost to a better player... I didn't beat myself.

When is it ok for you to lose? Why do you get pissed if you win? Leave a comment and vent about it

Oh yeah, I still have a blog

2008-09-25T17:39:00.003-06:00

A lot has happened in the past few months...

Marriage, Baby, Puppy, League Play Offs, Tournaments, Business travels, where to begin...

I went to Ohio for about a week at a time once a month since July 1st.
Ohio is a nice place... at least they have hills... aka moguls. I have to admit, it's a bit refreshing that you have to step on the gas for a reason other than passing someone or because the light turning green.

my tuesday night team had the pleasure of pulling the wild card for the league playoffs this past session.
We arrived, practice, and our player played the first match... winning.
I played the 2nd match. Doing well in practice I was confident going into the match...
Missing 2 hanging 8's gave me the loss...
Ended up creating a snowball effect for the entire team, and once again... we didn't proceed past playoffs.

I joined a new team in a completely different league and location (same rules though and same night)
It's not for the reason some might expect...
It's not because we lost.
It's not because I'm tired of losing against players that are better than me.
It's not because the distance is too far.

It's because I feel I've grown complacent. I've played everyone there, and I know what they expect of me.
I'm tired of playing like shit.
I've learned that when I get a coach the result isn't going to be me learning something... it's going to be deciding the best shot for this exact layout... but there is no why, there is no what if. Just do this, and if it doesn't work it'll be dealt with.
I'm a great player, but every time I play a league match my game goes to crap and I miss easy straight in shots... why?
Not sure... most of the time it's because I over think the shot and the table and everything... and stop thinking about the shot at hand.
How to stop thinking too much? Not sure yet.

So I decided to remove myself from that environment and look at things from a different perspective.
Maybe being with players that I've only seen stalking the table in the past, I'll learn something from those that I've never spoke to before.

I joined a league with people that speak my language.
See... I'm a geek/nerd... self admited, yeah... but seriously... I troll sites such as lifehacker.com, instructables.com, and of course google.com. My spare time is spent researching quantum mechanics and thinking of how I can turn a bucket into a water collection when it rains so I can spend less on bills and more on pool. I'm a DIY (do it yourself) nerd...
Generally the people I'm playing with and against are notoriously smart individuals. I've heard the term genious mentioned more than once in reference to this group.
My point is... I speak geek, and so do they.
Being on the same level it might be easier to pull something out of the matches played... or watched.

in any case... I'm thinking that these people over think things as much as I do from time to time. And there's bound to be great players... and if those great players over think things... maybe they can explain how they've over come over thinking.

Short synopsys
The league started 2 weeks ago... they have a test of various shots. Depending on how well you do during this test you're rated between 1-100. Apparently I scored well because my first match I had a decent handicap.
I was spotting 4 games in a race to 7.

Wow.
That's a decent hill. Something I could gracifully ride on a snowboard.

So the match starts, we lag... I win with inches to spare.
I break... not a thing drops.
The break is random anyhow... so whatever.

After letting my opponent know the table is wide open, getting back to my seat, and letting him look at the green for a good 60 seconds he goes back to his seat and sits down.
Without shooting. Turns out I made the 9ball on the break and didn't even notice it.
Smooth

so I get up to shoot the stripes and end up running down to 1 ball plus the 8. I miss the safe and think to myself I should have safed sooner... but too late now.
He shoots, misses, and I win.
the next 2 racks he and I both get down to the 8 ball and bouce it around the table for a good 28 innings before it finally drops... 3-0 and all I know is I've got a hill to climb.
4th game I win again with a good safe that gives ball in hand, and I ran 2 or 3 to get out.

Then the 5th game I realize that my endurance is starting to slip, my focus with it... so I concentrate harder and make sure that I take the hard shots first, leaving the ducks/easy shots last.
But since I missed the hard shots... he won
4-1
next game I missed position on a ball... attempted a safe and ended up scratching
with BIH he wins
4-2

I'm not keeping any sort of track in my mind of what the score is... so I ask, just to find out he's on the hill... and I need 3.
sweet green apples.

it's an awkward break... he doesn't make anything, but there's a nice strong cluster of about 8 balls where the rack used to be.
Theres 3 solids, the 8, and 2 stripes. I choose stripes because there's less clustered, and there's a ball in key position to be made... and break out the cluster.

I play down to the key ball and then realize my mistake.

the 3-8 are wired to the corner pocket. If I make this ball, break this cluster, I'm losing this rack.
So I hit a ball out of the stack and leave only 1 in the cluster...
we go back and forth a couple of innings, eventually I get stuck and am left something to this effect

I can barely see the 13... but if I get a good hit... it's not solid enough to move the cueball with draw and I'll scratch. If He runs 4, game over.
I'm blocked from everything else that's mine.
I decide to take the hit and foul on purpose, creating this...

I look at the table, giving him ball in hand... I see only 1 out.
1 out that includes 2 banks from weird angles. I'm expecting a safe, and returning to the table.

His first shot:

His next shot

final shot

But he decides to play the 8 in the corner... instead of the side
misses, but leaves me without a simple out.

I elect safe, but it's the wrong safe, and I leave him the win

a good match... and I'm not sad I lost. A rarity lately
but I'm not upset because I actually played well, I played to my potential.
I didn't feel nervous, awkward or anything other than "I'm here to win"

apparently the 8 ball didn't get my memo

Scrabble Victory (hints and tips)

2008-09-01T07:18:00.002-06:00

What I reference: http://lifehacker.com/5043607/ten-words-to-clinch-scrabble-victory

I know there's a lot of scrabble players out there. I personally don't play all that often, but I know there's actual organized leagues of scrabble games. When I heard that I didn't freak out, I didn't think "WHY?!"
I thought to myself... interesting. We're all geeks, just some of us are a different kind of geek. Pool geek, History geek, Computer geek, Word geek.

Here's a post about 10 handy words that will help you out if you come across a bunch of letters that don't make very much sense.
A few other tips too

Does "Consumer Be Aware" mean anything to you?

2008-08-22T18:26:00.007-06:00

I just recently stumbled on this post that kind of opened my eyes to what I'm actually being charged, and not just my phone bill either.

Are you being charged .002 cents? or .002 dollars? it makes a big difference.

http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2006/12/verizon-doesnt-know-dollars-from-cents.html

I'd explain in better detail, but the link does a MUCH better job.

I took note because I also use Verizon as a wireless carrier. I'm pretty good with numbers, but I figure that a large company such as Verizon, would also have a few people that are also good with numbers.
Well, apparently the author of this post/blog was unfortunate enough to NOT get the few that are good with numbers.

My favorite part of the audio conversation is

"How do you write 1 dollar on paper?"

"1" -- $1.00

"and how do you write 1 cent?"

"point 0 1" -- $0.01

"Ok, and how do you write a half dollar?"

"point 5 0" -- $0.50

"and to write a half cent?"

"point 0 0 5" -- $0.005 -- "I don't know, I'm not a mathematician. The computer is charging you correctly"

MAN!!! We were almost there! and then she gave in to enlightenment.

I take special interest in this situation because of the audio clip of the conversation...
Being someone who does customer service over the phones for a living... I understand what's going through the call rep's mind during this conversation. At the same time, I REALLY RELALLY hope that I'm able to take a step back and see the customer's point when they have a valid point.

Personally... if I was the first person that he spoke with, I would have felt as if the customer was trying a scam of some sort. In all honesty, I think he handled himself very well and I've spoken to many many people that aren't nearly as patient, and with issues that have no relation to money, or principle.

http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2006/12/verizon-doesnt-know-dollars-from-cents.html

When Does It All Start?

2008-08-05T17:39:00.001-06:00

Think back to when you were young... still young enough not to care what others thought of you. Young enough to stand in place and spin and spin until the sky became a mesh background to the the screen of the grass blades when you fell to the ground laughing.
Minutes later you were still laughing, spinning again. Didn't matter if you were alone or had 3 people spinning and crashing into each other.

At work today in a child like moment I decided to celebrate fixing a very difficult issue for a customer. I celebrated alone, and silently, by spinning in my chair without stopping... for about a minute, probably.

When I stopped... I wasn't concerned with how fun it was or how great a feeling it was. I was concerned with how long the dizziness was going to last, and damn... how old am I??

I got weezy from spinning in a damned office chair. G'bye 6 flags!

What happens to us when we age? We stop jumping bikes off ramps as tall as our waist, we stop jumping into the rushing water of a freezing river... we avoid the sand in the parking lot because we're wearing sandles and don't want to mess with walking with rocks in our 'shoes'

When do we start caring, and stop not caring?
Is it social.. is it a responsibility sorta thing? I'm tired of being old... and I'm not going to stand for it.
I'm going to sit in my chair, and watch other people be old... ignoring those that are still young... this will make my age seem younger, thus making me happy.

That's all that really matters right? YOUR feelings... YOUR happiness... why aren't you?

What pisses you off? What makes you angry... got a pet peeve? that's what the comments are for... feel free to share, I'm sure you're not the only one

A lesson from Danny Diliberto

2008-07-30T18:32:00.001-06:00

Danny Diliberto is currently on tour, as the rock band type would say.
I play straight pool more often than not. It's my favorite game, actually. I like 8 ball next, then 1 pocket and the rest are outta the money, so they whatever.

I found out on AZBilliards.com that Danny Diliberto was going to be in a local pool hall giving some lessons, and I was going to be in the area.... so I stopped in

Going into the lesson I was thinking that I'd learn how to pick apart a rack and with the new found pattern play, break past my current 43 ball high run.
When Danny and I started the session he asked what game did I want to focus on. My response was the favorite... 14.1

He broke (a nearly perfect 2 balls out of the rack to the rail, back to original position break) amazingly... then we went back and forth about 2 or 3 innings.
I missed a couple of easy shots. I mean EASY easy shots... such as straight in, from inches away... bobble. Or I'd slice it into a diamond. Terrible misses. I felt like I was just learning to play.

After 2 or 3 misses I learned the most important part of the entire hour.
I said to Danny "Some days your on, some day's your not. Today, I'm completely off"
His response "You know the pros don't have on and off days. You know why? Because they've learned not to let themselves have an off day. When they're off, they slow down and find out why... and 15 minutes later... they're on. They don't give themselves excuses."

Interesting.
To some, this might not be a little gem stone in the coal mine... but for me, it spoke loudly.

The rest of the lesson was pretty casual, I could tell that Danny was tired from being on the road and giving lesson after lesson.
When I'd miss he'd move the balls back to their original position and say "again"... miss "again"... miss "again" until I got the shot right... position perfect. Then we'd move on.

Every time before I'd get down on a shot he was absolutely sure to remind me of a few things... a few things that we all have to remind ourselves from time to time...

Picture the shot in your mind before you even step into it... visualization.
Decide exactly what's going to happen, get down on the shot... watch the balls do exactly what they're supposed to before you even move a muscle.... take your practice strokes, pause to ensure everything is absolutely perfect... and follow through.

Follow through follow through follow the fuck through.
That was my issue.
main issue anyway

So I learned that I need to pay attention and focus on the table, not anything else.

So now I'm going to go polish the gems I just found... and go put it into a collage of artifacts that no one else cares about, but in the end... it might mean something to someone.

But at least it'll be fun getting there :)

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

2008-07-12T13:06:00.003-06:00

During the summer each individual city/county has their own little "Taste of insert city name here"
Friday night I went to the local-est (that's a word, but don't look it up) one to me and I didn't taste any food, or drink any beer. Or play any pool.

But they had a couple of live bands there... one of which was very good.
I'm not a big fan of live music in bars and small venues... often times they're using concert speakers for a place that has signs on the wall "max capacity 110 "

It's too loud for such a small space... so I avoid karaoke (read: cock-a-rocky) nights and live band nights at bars and such. Usually they play songs from the classic rock genre that everyone knows, and only 40+ year old people actually get up and wiggle to the beat. Not a bad thing, but it seems that 9/10 cover bands... I could write a set list and be accurate on at least 5 songs. (not including which order the songs are played)

This band was outside in a little park setting... which has nothing to do with why they were a good band.
When I first got to the place they were playing some obscure music I've never heard before... didn't really sound like my slice of pie so I ignored it. The next song, and every song after that, I enjoyed very much.

They were playing Pink Floyd... all music from the same genre, but there's something about Pink Floyd that's a little more difficult than "Bad to the Bone" or "Hotel California"

I was only there for about an hour... and all they played was Floyd. I felt like I was at a live show from 20 years ago... spread out on a grassy knoll enjoying the acidic sounds of the night sky.
It was a beautiful thing...

The band was in tune... they were a tight group... changes were smooth... notes were hit... timing was right... and I'm tellin' you the voice was Syd Barrett in some other guy's throat, I swear.

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.

2008-07-05T16:24:00.000-06:00

I work the late shift... scheduled to leave an hour before we close. Often times since it's late, there's me and 1 or 2 other people... so I stick around for an hour or so to help out.
Because of this, and playing league, people have found out my dark secret... and it spread like wild fire here in this casual work place I call hell.

So this most recent independence day eve there was a bit of a get together at a local bar with a bunch of the folk from my hell.

The bar had 2 unmanaged bar box tables and I was called out to play.
The guy (for this, aka Chris Rock) I was pitted up against knew I played, and he's been calling me out for a few weeks... if not a month or 2 now.

So we get enough change for 4 games... We flip, I break, come up dry.

~~~~~~~~ Please hold ~~~~~~~~~~~

Before I continue this part... I need to point something out. I was talking about good pool halls and bad pool halls with someone about 6 months ago. He said something that kinda stuck with me...

"I go to [insert pool hall here] to play pool and drink, I go here to drink and play pool. Only a player can know what I mean."

Well... I arrived at this gathering to drink.

~~~~~~~~ Thanks for waiting ~~~~~~~

So I'm a shot and a pitcher in the bag when I break the first rack. I easily miss the next 15 or so shots, and lose the first game. Then the 2nd game is a loss and I'm racking the 3rd... this is about the time that I realize I should probably win at least once.

So I set the beer down, decide to actually examine the house stick I'm playing with (Turns out it's 3 ounces heavier than I'm used to, but the tip has a great shape to it... so I keep it)
Since the tip is decent I realize that every time I had been attempted to draw the ball, and it just stops dead.... it's a heavier cue ball. Duh... beer influenced this delay of discovery for sure.

The 3rd game comes down to my 1 ball and the 8 ball... Chris Rock had 3 left, I think... I miss but safe him, he misses... I win.
I noticed there were a couple people analyzing the shots and discussing it between each other... when I saw them my VERY first thought was Abercrombie & Finch. Well, Abercrombie was telling Finch something... it almost looked like they were watching us to see if we would be good to gamble against, but it could have been nothing. The juke was too loud to really hear what they were saying anyway.
4th game... I win again.

So we're tied 2x2 and we're outta coins. We call it good and we'll play some other day.

....... 4 drinks later.......

The people discussing our game decide they want to play. The game is doubles... 8 ball... bar rules.
They wanted to play for drinks. I tell them that we just got a fresh pitcher... so let's play a rack and if the pitcher is empty when the 8 ball drops, we'll play for drinks. They agreed.

So I end up breaking, 2 solids fall, I make one and play an iffy safe... Abercrombie comes up, swings and a miss... Chris Rock takes a shot, misses... then Fitch comes up, runs the table.

Everyone claps... we decided not to play doubles for drinks.

Then we just drank a lot and drove it off.

The rematch will happen, one day.

Random side note, I was getting gas yesterday and pulled around this brigade of cops arresting a biker. No idea what he did but that's not the point.

The point is that he is 1 man... and they needed 10 cops. Maybe he robbed a doughnut shop?

Down with the fancy!

2008-07-01T18:59:00.001-06:00

I started this blog with high hopes.
Not sure what exactly that means, but in an effort to achieve said hopes... I've tried to make long/interesting blogs.

I realize that I've succeeded in only one of those 2 things.

And it wasn't very interesting along the way.

So as they say... less is more.
Well, I don't really care... but I'm posting less....... words.. that is.

This past weekend I went to the The Taste of Chicago.
It was good. I had food, and beer. Then water next to a fountain.

I also rode a tall wheel like contraption.

Here's pictures. Yey

Channel 9 is the Captain's Channel

2008-06-09T12:44:00.000-06:00

Last Tuesday I didn't play on my summer league team. There's a reason for it, a good reason I suppose. But a reason none the less.

I was in NY.
Staten Island to be more exact...

I went out on business. I expected more time to play, but work got in the way and I was much too tired after 12 hours days.

It wasn't a bad trip over all... I wish I could have stayed another 24 hours... but oh well.

The flight there... OMG, GARBAGE!!!

NEVER FLY UNITED AIRLINES... if you'd like to know why... ask me.
or just read and scroll in a downward sorta fashion.

My flight was booked about a week early via Expedia... through my work job type place. They booked it, and sent me an email. Thanks :)
So a week later I write down the confirmation number and head to the airport... proceed to get into the wrong line, then correct myself, and then my anger for United Airlines begins.

I get to the front of the line... start checking in and find out as of June 15, 2008 they'll be charging $15 for the first bag, $50 for the 2nd and (now I'm going from memory) 3rd... and $100+ for every bag there after, depending on weight.
So that surprised me, but I didn't care because it's not June 15th at this point... do I drove on.
Filled out the little "if lost contact" tag and attached it to my 1 bag going under the plane... and wait for someone to collect said bag.

The guy next to me is on the Customer Help(less) Phone... obviously frustrated, and getting more and more irate by the word.
I eavesdrop that he's been waiting for nearly 20 minutes and no one behind the counter has helped him. Apparently the person on the other end of the phone said "ok, well you're going to have to speak with someone behind the counter sir" because his response is "I WOULD. If they would speak with me. For 25 minutes, no one has helped me... That's why I'm calling you."

As his anger is rising, my funny bone is tickling... and I'm enjoying this unfold.
There's 3 people on the other side of his little counter space, and he's able to get 1 of their attentions... He explains that the representative on the phone would like to speak with a united rep behind the counter.

Little FYI... This guy is respectable looking. Neatly dressed and speaks very clear educated English. Not pompous or any sort of "I'm better than you" kind of attitude at all.
He asked the man behind the counter calmly. And respectfully. The response he got influenced his next words into the phone "The guy behind the counter just got off the clock. 1 other person said he doesn't speak with anyone on the phone. and the 3rd person says she doesn't want to speak with you."

Good job United.

About 3 or 4 minutes later a guy asks for my bag, I hand, he says Thanks, and throws it on the conveyer asking someone at the end of the line to handle it.
Wait a second.... did you even look at the name? Where's the destination tag that attaches to every bag going under the plane?

I spoke up, and it was added to my simple backpack.

After getting my self taken care of I mentioned the guy next to me was having issues getting service... my representative spoke to him, and turned him to the end a line about 8 people deep... which formed in the past 10 minutes while I waited.

Thumbs up United.

Fast forward through security because that's never an issue and I get to Terminal B... head down to my gate.
After leaving the main walk way area and getting to the very end of the terminal I find my number, B19.
Apparently this is the first gate before you get to the sun.
Within 2 steps onto the carpeted area I find my shirt slowly drenching in sweat... I see the people in the seats wiping sweat from their brows with shoe strings because they're out of napkins... I'm watching babies go to sleep because it's too hot to cry.
Even they know it's too hot to try and complain, Satan doesn't give 2 shits.

I have another hour before my flight starts to board... excellent. I walk around for about 5 minutes and find the coolest area near my gate and plop a seat.

an hour or near strolls by and I notice a line has formed. That's expected.

If you've never flown before... here's something you should know before this experience continues.
When you check in and you get your boarding pass, it'll show your gate, flight number, type of plane your about to fly on, your seat number, and what section you'll be boarding in.
Seat usually being 1-30 or whatever... depending on length of plane. The lower number the more forward in the plane you are.
Section usually being 1, 2, 3, 4 or a, b, c, etc... and they board accordingly.

My Ticket: Section was "n/a"....Seat was "to be determined at gate"
Strange, but ok... perhaps because it was booked with work it's a standby sorta thing.

I go to the counter... wait in line... explain to the customer service my confusion, and I'm told I'll board after group/section 4, but before Standby.
Alrighty... sounds good to me. I'm in Group 5 with no name.
Right on.

So I sit back down and wait some more. I watch groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 group into semi-lines... I decided it'd be a good time to hop in line.

Ticket guy takes my ticket and says "oh, you're not yet... you'll have to wait." and takes the ticket behind me.
Oh, sorry... I walk to the end of the line (maybe 10 people back) and start over.
Getting to the front of the line again he reads my ticket "Rabbit... You're waiting for a seat assignment... You'll have to wait. Just have a seat over there."

Talked to me like a child in a restroom. Creepy.

This is odd though... because it's a group of me and about 15 others standing, sitting, dying... the screens are flickering with over 30 standby passengers for this flight.
I go over to the desk and take land behind the 1 person in line. He's taken a spot behind the person currently being helped at the counter.

2... 3... 4 minutes pass... 5 minutes... the person is helped. Successful! and he runs off to board the plane.
So does the service rep behind the counter.

WTF?

Ticket dude is gone. Service rep is gone... now 20 names on the standby list. What the hell just happened?

I find the nearest united customer service telephone and call the same line the gent at the baggage check in called.
Get the same response "You'll need to speak with a rep behind the counter, they'll sort everything out for you sir."
This is my response after explaining that there is no one behind the counter.

"Give me a minute... I'll let you talk to Casper" and I walk away from the phone.

Checking every gate for a rep I end up walking up to gate B1.
I find 1 rep.
Behind 1 completely empty counter.

I walk up to the counter and say "Excuse me" in the American polite sort of manner... response "Gimme a minute"
She was obviously concentrating, so I wait.

about 15 minutes of my random "is now a good time?" interruptions I've long decided not to leave my post because she'd run off to magic plane land and I'll never get on my flight.
Sorry lady, you walk away from this podium, I'm on your tail. You've earned a shadow :-)

Eventually she finishes her work and starts to walk away... After 15 minutes of not really having anything to look at I've memorized her name and every piece of information on her name tag. "Nikki, I need to get on a plane. You said give me a minute... I've given you 15, can we resolve this please?"

"Sorry hun, I'm off the clock." as she turned to walk away. I read off her ID number and ask for her manager, followed by her full name.

What's with people clocking out in this place? Damn.

Spinning back to the desk... she is unable to explain what happened... does confirm that I should have had a seat right behind first class but not in economy/coach (good seats.. my favorite without spending $1000) and she was able to get me onto a flight 2 hours later. All of this after saying "that flight is still boarding... it was delayed"
"Yeah, delayed for 10 minutes. That mark was 45 minutes ago."

Thanks for the update United.

The next flight leaves in 2.5 hours, it's the last flight of the night. I make my way to chili's and buy a beer, and wait.
My new boarding pass says I'm boarding with section/group 2... this excites me a little because I like the front of the plane better.
For you safety nuts, I know that behind the wings is better as far as safe goes... but I look at it like this. If I'm gonna go, it doesn't matter if I'm in the ass of the plane or the head of a train. My number's up, it's up. I'm not afraid of death... especially since it's simply a part of life anyway.
The front of the plane is better for a couple of reasons... It's quieter. Often has a better view out of the window (less wing/engine to bother with.) Bathrooms are closer. The TV's (if equipped) often are of better quality than the rear. The crying babies/noisy children are 90% behind me (as in the back of the plane)

where was I... Oh right, section 2... I board, no issues, get to my seat... I'm in an exit isle.... awesome sweetness!
This means I get an extra 62 feet of leg room. Plus, I'm fully capable of opening a door if we go down as a flaming tin can of death. Totally capable.

I tuck my carry on under the seat in front of me, insert my head phones into the jack in the arm rest, fluff my built in airline chair pillow and snuggle in to my new home for the next couple of hours.
In the arm rest I adjust the volume to a comfortable level... and scroll through <a href="http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,51600,00.html">the 13 channels.</a> 2-6 actually have active noise... all others are dead air. Only 1 channel has anything remotely acceptable for my listening pleasure. This I can deal with, but I'm not happy about...
I'm one of those weirdo people that like to listen in on the communications of the captain to the tower on the ground. Not sure why, but I've always enjoyed this.
Not having this station to listen to during my flight was unsettling, but whatever.

After we reach 35,000 cruising feet of air space I get my complimentary drink. I also get ice in my drink... as a standard.
Surprise to me, United Airlines is cutting back on complementary crap... probably due to the gas prices ...cutting back on things such as ICE.

I got 1 ice cube. Who uses 1 ice cube?
I don't... I use a bunch... or none, depending. But don't tease me with 1.
Why'd you let me know "Yeah, we have ice... but you can't have any"
Bastards.

I must commend the pilots though. I snoozed a bit on my flight, and when we landed I literally didn't even know we had already touched down. Not because I was in a deep slumber... because flight sleep is never deep ...but because the touch down was actually that smooth.
It was a brilliant thing.

Well done United.

So I go to the baggage claim to get my labeled backpack and realize it should have been on the flight that landed 3 hours prior.
Crap.
So I head to the baggage claim office and inquire about it. I'm informed that it should be in the baggage area, usually in the center on the floor.

Security officials allow this? Hey, you're the boss.
I wander back over to bags are being picked up and look around for piles of luggage. Finding 2 I look through each pile and come up empty.
I search around a little more.
and some more

about 5 minutes later I discover my bag is hidden behind about a dozen passengers waiting for their bags on the conveyor. My bag happens to be a lonely bag in the middle of the floor.
just 1 backpack in the middle of the floor...
no signs saying "lost and found"
no official police type person standing there protecting the bag
nothing indicating "this bag doesn't have a bomb"

So I risk my life and save the possible bomb filled backpack and find a taxi. Getting to my hotel at 1am isn't the greatest thing, but after check it it's also not my top priority to write an angry letter to united.
I slept instead.

I'll be in touch, United.
(no bombs, just a phone call or email or letter. Something my grandma would do... but whatever. Maybe I'll get a T-Shirt or a pencil or something nifty)

Stay tuned next week... The Return Flight!!!!
or don't, I don't really care.

Hard to keep up when life gets in the way

2008-05-27T13:39:00.000-06:00

So life has been kinda busy lately. I work in an industry that thrives on Mother's day and Valentines day... since May contains mom's day... it's been a busy month of hell.

A couple of weeks ago my Thursday night team played in the play offs.

It was a race to win the night. We had to play 5 matches, so a race to 3 to win the night.

The team we played against wasn't the 2nd team. It also wasn't the first "Wild Card" team that we were scheduled to play. Neither team could make it...

So we played the 4th team that COULD make it.

We won the first match... I'm usually late because I go to league straight from work... so I showed up as they were putting in the last 8 ball of the first match. So we won...

Then I cleaned 1 rack for practice and went up and won the 2nd match... and due to over confidence we quickly lost the next 3 matches.

It's interesting to watch the people of a strong, competitive team take a loss. An important loss like this one.

The people that it seemed cared, but not as much as everyone else.... it seemed they took the loss harder than everyone else. Acting? maybe.

The strongest player on our team seemed to have the confidence in the rest of the team and ended up drinking too much to solidify a win.

So yeah, we lost our play off spot to a random team that we weren't even supposed to to have a chance to play against.

I suppose it's ok though... they went on to some other tourney and won first, then moved on to CityWide... not sure how they did there though.

Good, I think... hell I donno

Other than that, I went to a comedy show, and it was awesome. No idea who was on the stage though.

There was this cool Asian guy, a black guy and a dirty mouthed white guy... no clue what their names were though.

Then I ended up at a concert... and that was cool. Pretty tame compared to what I'm used to, but whatever.

Summer session just recently started up. Apparently during the summer session we're allowed to play 1 or 2 players twice in the same night... so I played twice.

I won... and then I lost.

Meh, whatevers... I wasn't really into the games all that much anyhow.

I could have had better cue ball control though... my positioning really sucked.

Anyway, I don't really have much more to add here..... so yep, enjoy kido's

take it easy

Rabbit Gets out of Hole with new high score

2008-05-12T19:22:00.005-06:00

ok ok, so it's been a while.
A "long" while as some would say.

The reason for this is because it's been so busy at work, I'm pretty much ready to kill myself... or at least anyone who doesn't know how to turn on a computer.

If you're reading this, you're in good hands :)

Anyway, on to the important crap.... pool. Pool Minnow posted this video on how to break... I like it, I'm going to learn from it (I already did I think), and I'd like to share with all of you 3 readers out there.

With league, I was in a slump for a long time. Well, long for me anyways. Probably seemed so long because it was me in the slump, not just a friend or someone I play against every now and then.

So anyway, I was trying to figure out why and how to correct it.
I realized during my slump that I wasn't "seeing the angles" I couldn't walk up to the table and see a pattern for a 3 ball run.
I couldn't instinctively see the angle for a bank shot. I wasn't able to execute a shot that was a sliver close to another ball, I'd over cut or under slice or whatever the hell I would do to miss and give up ball in hand.

Well... Slump over!!!!
What I stopped is trying to figure it out. It's a strange concept, but it's exactly what I did.
I realized that I would break, make a ball, and work out a pattern from the 8 ball back...
I stopped this completely.
I started to break, decide what suit, and then find a makable ball and a ball to get leave on, and 1 ball after that (3 balls ahead) kind of thought process.

I'd try and group the balls up into each end of the table... take care of the foot end, then move up to the head end of the table, and get on the 8... and win.

I broke the slump by not thinking about what I was doing. I suggest, that if you're in a slump... try stopping trying to get out of it. Accept that it's part of this self-hatred game we call "pool"... and play the table.

We had a bye last Tuesday so I played at a pool hall that I've been to before (like twice) but on a table that I've NEVER played on before.
I started playing a game of straight pool (also called 14.1 or continous pool).
The basic rules are if there's a ball on the table, you can shoot it. In competitive play, it's call everything. When you have the cue ball and 1 other ball left on the table, you rack a 14 ball rack without the head spot ball. Each ball dropped into a pocket counts as 1 point.

For me, this is great practice. Mostly because it gets my head out of the game and puts it on the table.

So I set up a break shot much like Corey Deuel did in his 14.1 action challenge runs. The side pocket break shot.

I got a great spread but missed a few.... then I started running balls off the table. Getting perfect position and planning with precision.
I got into a flow, and then I proceeded to run 43 balls in a row!!!!!!!

WHOOOOTTTYYY mother f'in' TOOOOOOTTY!!!

It's hard to run 9 in a row. Harder to run 8 in a row on an 8ball table. and I ran 43 in a row. That's nearly 3 full racks without missing a single shot!
9ft table... older cloth... I've no idea how tight or loose the pockets were... but I'll check, and post a pic. I owe you at least that much.

edit:5/14 - I've paid up... apparently they were buckets. But the cue ball was heavier than the object balls, so I couldn't draw nearly as well as normal, it makes up for it ;)

My previous high run was 25. This is nearly double that.
The funniest part is I didn't even realize I hadn't missed until I started to rack the 3rd set.
What sucks is both my high runs are during practice, never during a match. So no witness...

Oh, plus I haven't lost a game at league since about 2 or 3 weeks ago... the grid at the top isn't 100% accurate, but it's sorta close. I missed a week in there somewhere and never got it back.
Kinda' like life

My tuesday night team lost their socks in the snowstorm and never knew what the paddle was for. So we're outta the competition since that session is over.
My thursday night team has won their ass off and we're now headed to the play offs. Wish luck, and I'll see you in vegas, bitches!!
whoo!

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

2008-04-17T15:59:00.004-06:00

These 4 words describe my week/month.

As you could probably tell... I've been in a bit of a slump as of late.

To remedy this I've done absolutely nothing... other than showing up to league with more determination to win, then when I lose... it just hits that much harder.

I decided I'm going to start practicing at least 1 day out of the week, other than league day/nights.
When I was playing reallllly well, I was doing 1 particular drill that I bailed on for some reason. So I'm going back to that drill.
I played a little yesterday, and the drill was miserable. It's a drill that you can see immediate results and gauge fail points. At least, that's what it does for me.
Maybe I'll diagram it sometime

So since the last time I've graced the blog world with my presence I've lost every game, except 1... but that's because I was playing someone that had only watched pool... but never played before.
Go me! Way to beat up on the little people!!

Anyway...

Tuesday night league was interesting.
I walked in about 3 racks into the first match. We were down by 1 and it was 2 skill level 6's playing the match.
Our score keeper was a 5, as was the score keeper of the other team.
After being there long enough to get a beer a small argument arose from the match table.
Apparently the team Captain (also the score keeper) of the other team mentioned something about neither player (of the match) actually playing like a 6 because neither was attempting to make a ball, and break out a cluster at the same time.
Both players were offended by this comment "I'm not a 6? Who the hell are you? You're a 5! Who are you to tell me I'm not a 6?"

This slowly escalated over the course of 2 hours. Eventually the team mate of the other team quit the jack ass captain's team, joined our team... meanwhile the argument turned into a personal insult fest.

This continued for about 40 something minutes... and then the jack ass captain said something about "blah blah you're a f---ing woman"

Moments later my team's player had lifted the captain 2 feet off the ground, slammed him to the floor... maintaining a solid grip of his shirt he proceeded to hit the guy several times in the face.

I drank my beer.
Another guy from my team walked over and pulled our guy off, in doing this it gave the opportunity for the other jack ass captain to squirm away, but he wasn't fast enough.
Our guy was able to kick him in the head at least 2 times... the 2nd impact solidifying a cold knock out.

I still had half a beer left.
moments later a guy that works at the pool hall came over asking what's going on and why this guy is sleeping on the floor. This must have woke him up, because he jumped up like he had just returned from a tennis match in Vegas. Sweaty and out of breath. Unaware that he was just run over by a bus.

Three quarters of my team had left the scene at this point...
I finished my beer

Over the course of the next 45 minutes about a dozen people came over and asked what happened and why there was a fight.

I got another beer
I didn't answer these inquiries... just smirked and took another drink

There were about 2 or 3 others that were nearby that happily described what happened, insult for insult, hit for hit.

I drank my other beer

I'm sure that next week someone will tell me that there was a huge bar fight and it was 3 against 5 people and the cops showed up and had to shoot a guy in the foot to make him stop swinging a golf club at people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's tax season again... so I did my taxes... and my state taxes said "give me your state driver's license ID"... I didn't have one from this state because I moved recently (9 months ago is recent, sorta... right?)
So I went to the DMV and had everything I needed, because I called in advance.
Birth Cert, Piece of mail addressed to me... current picture ID... and $10 bucks.
I called ahead and made sure I was ready to rock. I even know the traffic laws incase they pop quizzed my ass.

Bastards.
They failed to inform me that I needed my SSN card too. The bastards.
I ask what time they close (5:30pm) and head out.
I now have to go all the way home, get a little card that doesn't have any picture on it, and then go ALL the way back... it's 1:45pm and I'm a guy... so I go to subway real quick to eat along the journey.

After subway I go back out to the car and realize that I smartly locked my keys in the car.

The spare, is also inside the car.
because I'm smart.

So I look around to see who might mug me, it's 2pm and a beautiful day... so I'm good there. I continue the survey to find who might arrest me for breaking into my own car. Right outside of the DMV, this is a concern.
In my reconnaissance I see a grocery store... Food Mart or some crap. Some all food type of place, never been in one so they MIGHT (read Doubtfully) have wire clothes hangers.

I also see an Ace Hardware store. I know where I'm going... straight to ace.
I walk into ace and instead of wasting time wandering around not eating my sammach, I ask the girl at the counter

"I'm looking for something long and skinny, like a wire hanger to unlock a car door... can you point me in the right direction?"

"Did you lock your keys in the car?"

"noo...." with shameful face indicating "yes! now give me a hanger!"

"Oh, ok. If you had I would have called a free service for you."

"Free service what? Yeah... I did actually, lock my keys, cause I'm smart."

So she gives me the number and I call... 1 1/2 hour wait. Jesus. I tell the phone "Oh wow, I just noticed a wire hanger next to my tire. Cancel the order! Thanks" -click-

Back to ACE, which was a failure because everything that would be possibly suitable was $10 plus... and I wasn't going to pay that much if I didn't absolutely HAVE to.

I wander over to the grocery store because I'm getting really hungry, and I don't want to leave my food in the shade of my car.

There's squirrels about...

Apparently this place stocks their shelves in the middle of the day on Wed. So there's a ton of boxes filling each aisle... it's like walking through a kingdom of cardboard when you're 6 and you made your own little clubhouse in the living room.
You remember.

Anyway, I found a skinny box and decided to make it work for me. Heading to the fruit dept. I grabbed like 20 little twisty ties.

Walking out the door I was stopped by a cashier... "sir, are you going to pay for that box?"

Pausing, I looked at the box... then at her... saying "no thanks" I continued my journey to the door.

Since it's a nice day I have about a 1 inch gap in my window to work with. I poke the box in... not gonna work.
I rip the box up a bit... poke poke, poke... no dice
I rip the box some more... poke fail, poke... no dice
I take the twisty ties and add strength and angle to the cardboard... slide, poke, -click-

My makeshift key:

It's a beautiful day. So I get in, eat subway and head home.
After I get back to the DMV ssn card in hand I arrive just in time at 5:21pm, get my number and since there's not a soul in front of me... get called right up.

I explain that I need to get a state license or whatever and she says "no"
I say "why"

She says "because we close at 5:30"

I point to the clock and say "What time is it?"

She says "5:22"

I say "And what time do you close?"

She says "5:30"

I say "5:30 pm Right? Like in 8 minutes... There's time, I need a license"

She says "Sorry, you should have come earlier"

I say "I did come earlier. I also called this morning and verified the documentation I needed to get a license. That person just happened to leave out the fact I needed this little blue card. Then when I was here earlier, in this very same spot, 3 hours ago, YOU told me I needed an SSN card. YOU also told me that I have 8.. now 7 more minutes before you closed.
I'd like to get a state license so I can do my taxes, please."

She says "sorry, you'll have to come back tomorrow. There's not enough time today."

I hate the DMV.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

2008-03-26T15:33:00.003-06:00

Holy Crap!! 11 days! Did ya' miss me?

....... No?

That's cool, neither did I.

Saint Patties day.... festive. Festively drunk.
My favorite part about this day is not the drinking, not the irish nature of the holiday (which reminds me....), not the parade or the beads given away at bars.

It's the Guinness commercials. This one in particular.
Absolutely hilarious.

Other than watching that once or twice, I enjoyed a fairly blurry weekend. Maybe because it was so long ago, or maybe because I was drinking. Either way... it's blurry and I forget how it went. Good I suppose.

Work
Then I had league a couple of times, lost twice... then the weekend.
Work was somewhere else in there...
Then the weekend arrived. Freakin' Finally!
This past weekend I went to a bar tournament. Had a great time...

I usually play on 9 foot tables with fairly new rails and cloth that is consistently in good condition. Kind of like the room owner knows what a pool player wants.
Rare, I know.

So in said tourney I had the luxury to play on some Valley Barbox's with 70's shag carpet in place for the felt. Tight pockets.
And the happy times of ACS/BCA rules. God I love rules that hate slop. Yummy!

The first match was against a strong player.
His hoodie said something about a castle, not white castle, but the letters were white. Anyway, doesn't matter.

I won the lag and he racked... While he was racking he watched the 5 ball (head ball) move a good 1/4 inch... then he fixed it, while lifting the rack the 5 moved the exact same direction, the exact same amount. He fixed it, another lift, another 1/4 inch.
After the 3rd "attempt" he put the rack away and just kind of walked away from the balls. After watching the 5 ball knock on china's door, get no answer, and then come back to my table... I decided to look a little closer.
If it was a little gap I was going to break it anyway, but I needed to know how to break it.
I realized the 1/4 inch I was seeing was a little less than reality. How about a about a half ball (full inch for those of you that don't play pool....)

Speaking of which... if you don't play, a lot of the stuff I talk about probably makes very little sense... why are you reading all this junk?

Thanks anyway!

Anyhow... so there was a grand canyon between the 5 and the 12, but it was still touching the other stripe. It was still touching, and it was supposed to be a friendly tourney, so I looked at the rack and then shot a confused "Why'd you just eat the stuffing out of my teddy bear for thanksgiving dinner" look at White Castle.

He approached and said "Does it need a rerack?"
My response... "yeah, might as well... there's a bit of a gap in there."

So he reracked, I broke dry... we went back and forth a few innings and he was used to the shag carpet and won the first rack.
In a race to 2, this is not such a great thing.
So I made a couple of nice shots and took the next 2 racks back to back

1-2 White Rabbit (still in the winners bracket, yey)

The Next Race to 2 was against (what I soon found out) a very adept player.
This game was fairly short, and painless. I took 2 strokes, and lost.
The lag... which I won.
I broke... dry. Then he ran the table... twice.

2-0 Really Tall Guy (I'm in the losers bracket, yey?)

So my next match was delayed because, well... winners play first.

Loser's race to 1.
Wait, 1... what's this? 1?
I played my next match against a reaaaallllly old guy, with a Neon green shirt... said something about "I walk for Breast Cancer" or something like that. I thought it was funny because I happened to be wearing my "tits-mcgee" shirt that day. (A shirt I got from a bar in S. Korea for drinking 3 shots with a rattler's tail in the shot. The tail had to touch your lips all 3 times. The shirt shows a scantily dressed lady on the back.

Anyway... I was kind of watching him play earlier in the tourney, and he looked like he knew what he was doing. He made some very nice break outs and was fairly precise with his cue ball position skillz.

So we started to play, I think he broke... I don't remember. I came up to an open table, a run out but there was work to do. 2 of my balls were completely frozen but they weren't lined up to pocket...

I made the shot and got position on the remaining ball... which I made, but locked myself behind the 8 ball so that I could finish out the match. In league I've fallen into the habit of playing banks or kicks and that kind of thing or playing a strong safe. In my league it's a foul for me to crank up beyond a 45 degree angle...
stupid league.

In practice (because I used to dream about becoming a world trick shot artist champion) I've been known to practice a masse or two.
I've won matches due to this skill, and I've beaten stronger opponents by getting out of "lock up" safes with a [i]lucky that it worked[i] masse --I'll admit that much--

And now all this information rushes back to me. Screw the 2 rail kick into a safe. Screw giving him BIH on a foul/safe. Screw the 1 rail with english. I know I'm not Efern Rayes. So screw all that... I'm goin' for it, bitches.

I cranked up, hit the masse a little softer than I wanted to... but that's because my subconscious took over for me, made the 1 ball and then won the rack. Whoot!
err somethin' like that

Then we figured I had some time so a pizza was ordered. After my 2nd piece was demolished in .3 seconds my name was called... Table 3...
Some guy named PJ.

Earlier in the day PJ had beaten the tall white guy that knocked me out of the winners circle. With this knowledge, you know he wasn't too bad of a player.
as we played our race to 1 I couldn't get the thought of smooooothh cheesey pizza with hot sauce smothering it.. outta my mind.

mmm... yum

So he broke.. some clusters remained and he played a couple of balls then got a bit out of line, and had to play safe. I kicked out, made a ball and started to clean the table. I also got out of line and had to play safe.
I'm solids, the Red 3 ball... there is no 3 foul rule... so this is the safe I played

[cuetable pic]

He attempted to make his 1 remaining ball and get the break out... didn't work so well, so he played safe.
[cuetable pic]

I didn't have a clean shot, so I played safe in the same manner... pushed his ball closer to mine... again.
He mumbled somethin' about "dirty f'in' pool playin' sons a bitches. How's a man supposed to win with low down crap like this s*&%"

Or something like that. My smile got a little bigger, and my heart warmed a little bit more.

we went back and forth with this same exact process until he finally said "screw it" and pushed the 3 A LOT closer to the pocket. Unfortunately I was frozen to both the rail, and his ball. Damnit.

[cuetable pic]

I attempted an english only kick but missed, and lost my 2nd loser's match.
Then we went to a place I've never ver ever been to before.
A fun little place, that usually isn't as crowded as it was this day.

Apparently they were having a party, and I'm not a fashion expert... but I noticed a couple of things that might not be in style.

Ever.

as the night progressed... the drinking continued... and the men looked at the ladies. Hilarious how obvious this guy was.

as the drinking continued... the dancing got crazier... and crazier... and my focus skills lacked

Some things are better than others... what can I say.

So then I had a flat tire on Monday, put on a spare and I didn't go to pool last night.
Thursday, no pool... flat tire again. Next week.. we'll see.

I have friday off work... WHOOOO!!!! BItches!!!!!!
alright!

Daylight savings, psssh

2008-03-15T16:06:00.001-06:00

http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/null/83073

How long has it been since my last post? a week, a month? I don't know... I know I've lost two league matches since then, and I have another league thing tonight.

I've lost... and I know exactly why, but it doesn't change a thing. Man that's frustrating.

Thursday night.... got my ass handed to me by an outstanding player. He had 1 game on the wire, and by the way he played... he should have been spotting me 2 games. But whatever. I've never played against a stronger player, doesn't mean there aren't better players out there... because there are. I just haven't played them...

1-2 Sandbagger

Tuesday night I was tired. I woke up sore, achy, and tired. Simply put... I didn't feel like playing pool, staying awake, or anything else.

Sleep, was my goal... and nothing more.

0-2 Guy that didn't need sleep

Then I went home, and slept.

Thursday night

We had a bye.

I don't know about you, but I hate Daylight Savings Time. Spring forward, fall back... despise it.

I get to gain an hour of work and lose an hour of sleep. Great.

A good number of states through out America don't even change their clocks twice a year. Oddly enough, other countries follow this same practice as well. Not every country, of course.

It was originally proposed (Not by Ben Franklin, but around the same time frame) to conserve candle wax. The practice continued to conserve electricity and to enable us to utilize the daylight that we have.

Set your alarm earlier.

We still continue this practice because farmers need to modify their schedule for harvesting and such.

Set your alarm earlier.

Another reason we still change the time continuum twice a year is to "conserve energy by turning on lights later in the evening, and cost american's less money."

Oddly enough...... changing the time on the clock doesn't increase or decrease the rate of speed the sun drops behind the mountains, sea, corn field horizon to the west.

There is a good thing about this DST crap... it provides a decent excuse to be about an hour late to work/school/meeting/whatevers. "ah crap, I completely forgot to reset the clock... sorry I'm late"

Saint Patrick's Day is on MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY

I'm not Irish, but I like to drink... so I'll celebrate it.

Maybe it's sunday........

I'll drink on both days, just to be sure.

Pool, Gambling, Drinking...

2008-03-05T20:43:00.002-06:00

Tuesday night I show up, and I get a single warm up game. I rack, he breaks, we go back and forth... I have a run available, so I go for it. I miss on the 2nd from the 8. My practice opponent wins this practice game.

>>I play pool. I love it, if you couldn't tell. I also play poker. And I'm not too bad at it. Better at pool, but I can definitely stay at the table even if I'm not getting the right cards. If you play, you know what I mean.

Since I moved, I haven't played a single hand of cards... unless it was a drinking game, which isn't poker... so it doesn't count.

I've been searching for a casino, or better yet, a house game to be able to buy in, and walk away with a couple of earned dollars.

No such luck.>>

League calls for a race to 3.

I shake hands with Teddy, or whatever his name was... and he confirms my skill level. He confirms incorrectly... almost 3 levels above my current status. After correcting him he mentions "Wow, you were playing like a pro earlier"

Teddy, teddy.. teddy.

I'm not a pro. I'm not above the highest skill in this league. I win, and I lose... just like everyone else. Perhaps, one day... you'll be able to ask for my signature... and I'll say "sure, here ya' go"

but that's not going to happen any time soon.

My next thought is "he trying to shark me?"

So we lag, I take the lag... and I let this little thought get to my head during the first rack... and he wins it.

Then it comes to mind something that I've read on a blog I link to.... we're not pro's, we're hacks. It doesn't matter if you're a 2 and I'm a 7... neither of us are pro's so it really doesn't matter.

In the 2nd rack I had a cluster just above the 8. I decided to break out a ball from the cluster and play safe behind my 11. I screwed it up TERRIBLY...

I over drew the cueball, made the ball and got position for the 11 in the corner. Damn sandbaggers.

I take this rack and then I take the next 2.

1-3 Rabbit

>>After the league matches came to a close another player on my team invites me to a poker game.

Who am I to say no?

Apparently the game was already in progress for a couple of hours, there's supposed to be about 20 people total... and it's a cheap buy in.

I sit down at the table across from a guy I'm going to call Bonnie.

Wind breaker, super tight jeans, a shirt you can find ONLY in a gift shop and seriously had a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his sleeve as if we were in nam, all over again. Oh, and a mullet.My ninja camera skillzz came in handy.

The guy was over confident, and LOVED to call bluffs. I like these players... they're easy to read, and easier to take money from.

What I couldn't understand is why the other 6 people at my table weren't reading the same thing. They were throwing their money into the pot like Converse was going out of style.

I was going to stay and become the last man sitting, but I decided I had to work the next day. Cashed out early and walked away with more than 10x the buy in amount.

Not bad for 2 hours worth of sittin' on my ass.

Regionals... not quite like league.

2008-03-04T13:12:00.003-06:00

Last Thursday night... I played a tough opponent, he was spotting a game in a race to 4. Hill-Hill, he took the final game as I rattled the 8. Out the window with the undefeatedness on thursdays.
Great game though... I never thought I'd say this, but it felt kinda' good to be told I'm sandbagging.
I'm not, of course... and it was presented as a joke, but he said it while handing me a beer... so who am I to get upset? haha... nice.

2-4 Guy that bought me a beer. Thanks guy.

The professor and I both qualified for regionals. It was a solid 2 hour drive to no where's ville, I think they had 2 bars. So we saved the environment, carpooled the 2 hours of highway. Got out there Friday night and had some of the best mexican food I've had in a LONG time.

Better than when I was in mexico even.

The burrito I got was huge. I'm talkin' massive. Bigger than my plate (if the plate was smaller) kinda' big.

Shoulda got a picture, but my battery was dead. (and the foods looked too good to wait)

So I ate the thing and got full about 1/2 way through, took the rest back to the hotel and then realized I didn't have a fridge.

"It's chilly out, I'll leave it under the car. It's like an outside fridge" I thought.

Then I realized how cold I'd get on my way out to the car, and set the little white box full of gigantic burrito and rice with refried beans covered in "super hot sauce"... on top of the TV.

Registration was at 10am the next day... That finished at about 10:30... There wasn't a single practice table unless you were able to win a table, and keep it... this was your practice.

14 tables, 108 people.

...

........

14 Diamond Pro Cut, Blue Simonis, 7feet long by 3.5 feet wide, red dot smart tables.

And 108 people.

...

At least they were perfect tables......

So at around 1:30 I played my first match in a race to 3. Hank played well. No idea what his real name was, but I remember him as Hank. He ran to the hill as quickly as he could... his trouble was getting over it. I realized in the first 2 racks I wasn't playing nearly as defensively as normal. Playing really aggressive, and it wasn't working.

I changed up my style, slowed down a bit (to a sharkingly slow speed, I might add) and started to play safe. A lot.

If I didn't have a run out, I'd make 1... and safe. Hank would run until he missed, and ended up leaving 1 ball + the 8... 3 racks in a row.

If you play this hellish game, you know that having 1 ball to hit, while the other player has 6 or 7 to hide the cueball behind....... this odds is bad for yous.

Hank didn't catch on quick enough, and lost his first match.

In the last 3 racks of this match I racked up around 6 or 7 defensive marks. But I won. And I'm still in the winner's bracket.

2-3 Rabbit

According to the board I had a bye... so I figure it's going to take at LEAST another hour, maybe 2 before my next match. I order a burger, it arrives and I'm waiting for a side of ranch... my name is called. My name is called to match up with someone I know. Some one that I've played against in the past.

Someone I didn't need to drive 2 hours away from my city to play against. I played a game right before I got into his car for a drive to this regionals tournament.

"Table Assignment for Rabbit and the Professor, Table 3" booms over the p.a.

I eat a french fry, he gets the score sheet. I never did get my ranch.

I meet him at Table 3.

He wins the lag, and I go straight to work... in 5 innings I have 2 racks in my pocket and I'm at the 8 ball on the 3rd rack. This is my game, my chance for vegas. My chance at glory and bright lights of gambling and booze.

I think they have hookers in vegas too. Not that I'd buy one, but that they have them.

I'm left with an easy on the 8... and like a jack ass, I over cut it... BARELY move the 8 ball, I think it budged a bout the width of a cat's whisker, and in this one singular motion of missing the 8 ball, I started the decent.

If I was on a plane that had run out of fuel... as the nose dips slightly and the angle of the plane drops 5 degrees and heads towards the deserted Australian outback... in that industry, they call this part of the flight the "Terminal Phase."

I scratched. Then I battled, fought, ridged tooth and sharpened nail... all on the felt, of course... and the professor ended up slowing climbing to his hill. Much like an old video game that I love SO much, we were hill/hill some odd 20 innings later, fighting, battling, and throwing rocks at one another to distract from the army flanking their castle.

I missed hitting the cue ball once or twice, miscue style... he did the same and let the cue drift 2 inches to no wheres. Both of us giving the other ball in hand a couple times.

He came out victorious in the end.

2-4 Professor

Unfortunately the Professor went on to play against the same person he walked all over in his first match, and lost... 3-3.

So now I'm in the loser's bracket, it's 4:30pm... and I wait.

and wait, wait, wait some more, and then continue to wait.

At 10:30 my name is called.

At this point, I don't really care. It hasn't been explained clearly what happens if you're in the loser's bracket and I know I don't really want to wake up early the following morning. I will if I have to, but I don't really want to.

So I figure if I win the loser's bracket, so what... I'm top loser? That's great! I'm still not goin' to vegas.

So I don't put forth my full attention, and I don't play some of the perfect positions that I should... and I lose my loser's match.

2-3 Short guy with a hat

I get to sleep in on Sunday, so it's not a big deal.

What did I learn?

Nerves (for me) make more of a difference when there's other depending on me to win. When it's just me, and that's it... nerves don't affect me nearly as much
Don't let your head get out of the game. It doesn't matter what else is going on off the table, stay in it... and stay in it to win
I need to get back to lansing and get another burrito

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt"

2008-02-27T16:16:00.000-06:00

"...Breathe... Breathe in the air..." - Pink Floyd

An interesting thing occurred to me last night during practice.
It was after my match (which I lost due to the fact that I couldn't put together a 2 ball run, pathetic) and I was playing a game of 14.1 (Straight Pool.) It was after I ran the first rack, set up not exactly perfect for the break shot. I decided that I would use a little bit of top english, a touch of left, and a firm medium stroke.... after I decided all of this, I got down on my shot, and executed, perfectly.
What's interesting is I haven't EVER done this in my past.
I see a shot, and decide what kind of route I need to get position on the next ball, then I bend down to the table... when I'm on the cue ball taking my practice strokes, that's when I decide what kind of english I'm going to use.

I went 3 or 4 racks with this in mind. Decide the shot, THEN get down on the shot... don't do a half/half thing. Which is awesome. I was getting perfect position... within inches of my goal. Make a ball, go 3 rails, and getting right where I want, within 3".... an amazing feeling.

Too bad I didn't realize this before the match.

0-3 Other guy, not me. Damnit.

This weekend I have a tournament... it starts Saturday, ends on Sunday.
I think it's a double elimination, but I could be wrong. I know there's a re-buy but I don't know how much.
A couple of guys from my team are going along. We were talking about how perfect the game makes us feel. Nothing to think about, nothing to worry about. Just get to the table, hold the stick, focus on 1 sphere, one pocket, move to the next ball.

Bliss.
Maybe it isn't the right word, but it's the first that comes to mind.
Nirvana.
Closer, but isn't the perfect word.
Euphoria.
Ecstasy.
Indescribable.

There's nothing that compares, at least not that I'm aware of.
Maybe an artist drawing or painting. A doodle after sketch, develops into a masterpiece or 7 other doodles. 8 hours later the artist realizes they're 5 hours late for work.
A guitarist playing riffs upon riffs creating muffled noise and distorted solos to every other ear, but to the guitarist it's a 6 hour getaway from the world.
Forget Food.
Screw the water and bathroom breaks, just play.
A scientist on the brink of a new discovery. Test tubes and magnifying devices everywhere. 72 hours of data and research, the scientist realizes he's this close to messing up a clone because he hasn't eaten or slept for 2 and a half days, but he's about to cure AIDS.

Top of the world.

And I'm about to get nearly 48 hours straight of this mind-peace.
I can't wait.

Dreamt is a word, right?

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people like that also)

2008-02-21T15:02:00.002-06:00

Tuesday was a league night... in a race to 4.
My opponent was a cheater. Outright.
Didn't bother me, it just gave me more motivation to stomp the crap out of her and take the match. Much like a recent post by Pool Minnow about an opponent she played during a tournament.

Congrats to her for the win, btw.

Cheater made me hate her more than I hate gum on the underside of my hat. Not that this happens often, but if it does... I reallllly hate it. Trust me.

So we played a race to 4
I took the lag, then cheater won the first rack, it was then that I realized cheater didn't like to play fair.
Cheater would move a ball with her hand/stick and not think twice about moving it back. Just take her shot and move it back "best she could"

I played, I watched her make balls without even thinking about position.

When the cueball and object are close enough (usually within a chalk's width), a double hit is possible/more likely. You can tell if there was a double hit by the direction of the cueball after object ball contact. Please see exhibit A

Cheater would double hit and not say anything, even when the cue stopped in an obvious run out position for me, or her....

I played, I watched her cheat at little things like this. I figure cheater must have really needed this win.

In the 2nd game I scratched (a secondary object ball knocked the rock in a weird direction) Immediately cheater encouraged her team to celebrate as if cheater just won the Olympics.
Cheater would jump and scream loudly. I came close (once) to dropping the eight ball early, to my left it sounded like a 2nd grade wedding reception was suddenly released onto the playing field of a homecoming football game.

I played, I watched her team's excellent sportsmanship skills.

Cheater would foul by missing everything, sometimes not even hit a rail... Cueball just rolls methodically 1 diamond away from her stick, would cheater call it? NOooo... just walk away from the table as if it was a completely legit. "Maybe he won't notice"

I played, I watched her avoid playing safe for the beautiful sell out.

Cheater would win the first rack, and that was it.

/remove soapbox

4-1 Rabbit

Thursday Night was an interesting night. Not due to the league match, but due to the games after the match. I'll probably explain in the next post.

The league match was against some new guy. According to his dress and lack of words, I think he was a truck driver in town for the week on a delayed delivery.

We shook hands, we went to lag, out of the corner of my eye I see something beautiful. Awe inspiring. Absolutely incredible.
His cue stick was amazingly white. More than the snow atop Pike's Peak in the middle of a December snow storm.
But that's not what caught my interest. It's not what excited the inner's of every muscle in my body. The color wasn't what alerted my body to the fact that every tendon was connected to every bone and every joint interlocked with fluids of cushion.

I stand to take the opportunity to admire the stick.... that's when it struck me.
Not the stick, it's not what struck me.

The realization of what was soooo damned attractive about this stunningly white cue stick.

It's creator, that's what grabbed my attention so fully.
The cue maker was Budweiser.
I was about to play against a guy that's using a cue stick made from a beer company.
My thoughts.... "Wouldn't you do better with a house cue?"

In a race to 4, I win.

4-0 Rabbit

Oh Customer's, how I loath you

Every now and then we send out update CD's for the system that I support.
It has bug fixes and address updates and usual junk like that.
Every single "patch cd" that's sent out has exact and precise instructions on the CD case.
Every time we send out a bulk amount of these CD's, inevitably our call queue escalates due to people having issues trying to update their system
Here's an example:

"Hi, I just got the update CD and I need to put it on my computer."

"alright, have you already put the CD in the computer drive?"

"yeah, it's in there right now. Didn't do nothin' tho' "

"Ok, click on edit... then options... a new window will open up"

"Got it, it says--" [proceeds to read each and every word starting from the top left corner, and won't allow interruption.]

"Click on the Update Tab in the upper left corner, the very first thing you read off."

"Ok, now it says--" [Started to read again...]

"--I have the same thing on my screen, I can see exactly what you're looking at"

"Oh! Can you see me?"

"Umm.. no, I'm just using a copy of what you're using... it's like looking at something you've faxed to me."

"oh, cause I was gonna do a dance for ya'"

"haha, that's nice of you.... Go ahead and highlight CD-Rom, then Update to the right of that"

"Ok, it has an error message... Somethin' about puttin' a CD in a drive or something?"

"........................where's the CD at right now?"

"right here"

"I'm not able...to see...exactly where....'here' is"

"I'm holdin' it in my hand"

"Ok, let's go back to where we started...."

After 3 attempts the member realizes that she has to not only put the cd in the drive, but also LEAVE it in the drive... not eject it immediately.

Amoeba's are more intelligent than customers.

2008-02-15T19:18:00.007-06:00

On Tuesday night, I played another league game.
Playing a race to 3... he needed 4 games.
He got up 3 games... then I caught up 2, then he beat me in the end.

I lost focus.
Completely and totally lost focus.
There were 4 different shots that I could have taken to avoid selling out, but instead I decide to remove the 1 possible safety... and sell out.

2-4 Guy that didn't lose focus

Last night was league night... and I didn't play. So I'll mark that up as a Bye week.

On a MUCH better note... SPORE!!!!!

I've been waiting on this thing for more than 2 years now... They've released a ... release date.
and now I only have some odd 6 something months to wait, pending further postponement.

You start out as a single celled organism in a small droplet of water... through eating and avoiding death you get points. With these points you can upgrade your plankton. Like a spike for eating or grow fins for better movement, etc. After upgrading your little guy you get to move up in the world and create a creature. Over time you develop your creature in each and every way shape and form that you desire. 6 arms 8 eyes and a tail... don't forget a mouth though.

After surviving long enough, you can choose to move out to land... or create bubbles and stay under water. Create a tribe, then a civilization, cities, countries, eventually a planet of various creatures of your own creation. Then build yourself a UFO, fly to another planet... and abduct their creatures and take them back to your place. See if they'll survive... if so, maybe you'll end up cross-breeding. Who knows.

The game is set up to create it's own creatures that will give a challenge to each of your goals. For instance... You're trying to run around and collect food... it'll randomly generate some baddies that you have to kill, or be killed. And you say "but I created my guy with TONS of armor, and a hell of a lot of WEAPONRY!! I can kill EVERYTHING" The game will make a T-Rex that will smash your little guy.

You can start random wars, you can get attacked. You can make friends... beautiful day.

Sept. 7, 2008
Here's a quick clip that gives a good impression of the "little guy" editor

.... and jesus I can't wait.
Awesomeness, in a CD size game

I work in Technical Support, and some days it's ok... like the other day when it was -5 degrees after wind chill. I'm ok with not doing construction to pay the bills.

Other days, I want to kill myself... and take 3 quarters of the nation with me. In the future I'll randomly give examples of calls that I will probably end up in jail as a result of.

Come along with me on this journey of frustration.

Customer: I need to print a receipt for a refund I did earlier. Then send the print out to my customer.

Woe is me: Ok, go into ticket search and find the refund ticket you'd like to print out.

Customer/Caller: Ok, I found it.

Woe is me: Alright, go ahead and double click on it to open the details. Now at the bottom, there's going to be a "print" option... go ahead and click on that.

Customer/Caller: Print? or configure?

Woe is me: Print. (Configure... what?)

Customer/Caller: Ok

Woe is me: Now in the upper left hand corner, put a check mark in "print receipt," and remove the check for "print invoice."

Customer/Caller: Ok

Woe is me: Now click on Execute at the bottom.

Customer/Caller: I have execute, output invoice, and escape.

Woe is me: Click Execute.

Customer/Caller: it says "are you sure you want to print a copy of this invoice? Yes or no?"

Woe is me: If you click no, it won't print out. (did you read the question?)

Customer/Call: my printer's making noise? Is it supposed to do that?... Oh ok, it's my invoice. It's the original sale.

Woe is me: ummm... ok. When you were in ticket search, did you double click on the refund, or something different?

Customer/Caller: I opened the original sale.

An exciting Week (for me)

2008-02-14T18:36:00.012-06:00

When I'm at work... I'm bored.
Very bored.

I have a small table of green felt that I purchased at some store for $2.99.
Other than that, it's a pretty boring cell of cubical likeness.
Extremely bored... so I make things.

I made this today:

It's a hovercraft... sorta

It's not efficient enough to actually transport anything, but it can move all on it's own Balloon... CD... adhesive... you know, the usual.

Lately I've been working on a new (to me) shot... basically a lot of top or bottom english with a bit of side. We're talking 10-11... 1-2, or 4-5:30 o'clock... Nothing fancy, but the actual shot is using the side english to throw a ball into a pocket, and still get the planned follow or draw.

I played on Thursday night... it was a much more accurate show of talent/skill.
I played a first timer... a New Guy to the league... so it was a race to 3.
In about 8 swings he was 2 games up, and I realized that I was trying to run the table every chance I got.
It's curious playing people who have never played league before. They're nervous (usually). But the part I enjoy is thinking they could be a pro in the making... and no one knows.
Or they could be a person that knows which end of the stick to hit the cueball with, and understand the other balls are supposed to go in the pockets... annnnd that's about it.

So in the 3rd game I had a hill to climb, and I knew I wasn't looking forward to missing because this New Guy was a decent shot
I started playing safe after safe until I had 2 solids on the table, and he had the 8. I saw a chance to win the game if he went for it.
The 8 was sitting near the side pocket, but you could make it in only from certain angles... Basicly that half of the table. I had a very makable (it's a word, "makable".. sure it is) ball on this end of the table. So I play safe but leave the shot wide open... he goes for the 8 in the corner, scratching in the side. Perfectly as planned.

won the first, then I won the 2nd rack.
Now we're sittin' pretty at hill-hill.

I break, make nothing and he chooses solids... I couldn't blame him. I had a tough cluster to break out, and I didn't see any easy way to go about it.
So he makes a few, I make a few, he makes a few and misses on the 5, leaving it near the 8. He leaves me down table near my cluster and 1 other stripe I still have sitting out in the shade.
Immediately I see the opportunity for a break out, but I'm set up to miss the pocket if I miss the draw for the break out. A careful shot, so then I decide to look for a lockup safety. Lapping around the table I realize all his are out in the open... I don't see any safeties to my satisfaction.
So I play for the break out... I have to hit the 12 JUST BARELY to the left in order for the draw to come back in the right direction... doing this will miss the pocket by a nipple... so I add some right english to make the ball.

Works perfectly, and I run out.

Match is mine.

3-2 Rabbit

The best part about the end of the 3rd game is everyone was watching.
My Cap'n was, the rest of my team was, his cap'n was watching because he just finished giving a coach to my opponent, the table next to us was watching (I was in their way, so they paused).... oh MAN did that feel grand.

For the actual cuetable, click here.

Gambling is more fun than playing for free

2008-02-06T14:47:00.000-06:00

Overall League Record

Tuesday	L	L	W	Future	Future	Future
Thursday	W	W	W	Bye	Future	Future

[Picture goes here... reader... you don't see this. Ignore it until there's a picture here.] Tuesday was league. Not a spectacular display of talent during the match.

I was spotting a game in a race to 3. She won 1, won 2, then I rattled the 8 and she ran 3 balls, then out. Rightfully so, she did play a better game. I was too aggressive and lost. 1 reason why I hate this game.

2-2 She wins

Before the match I was playing with a guy on my team that is a bit better than I am. He plays lock up safeties, so we'll call him The Professor. In 9ball, he'd spot me the 8 to make it even. We hit around 2 racks into the pockets... mostly by lucky position and chance safes. Nothing was going as planned for either of us.

So The Professor asks if I wanted to play for something cheap. Maybe a race to three for $5. So I say sure and we play a rack... I win. 1-0

Meanwhile another team member is working to arrive at the pool hall and play the last match of the night, instead of forfeiting the 5th game.

After our first game he shows up and we step aside and let him warm up. After The Professor finished his nacho's... our 2nd rack began. He wins. 1-1

Match time... I go spot a game and she wins, as mentioned.

over the next hour Professor and I play 2 more racks, and now we're tied at 2-2

He's not playing his A game, and I'm not really... so we decide to delay it until next league night, Tuesday.

This was my first 1 vs. 1 gambling thing.

I decided I really like to gamble on my game. It was cheap, but it was a TON more fun. I was no longer just "showing off" my developed skill. Now I was getting paid for it. I didn't focus on the game any more intently when I was gambling, I just played the table. 1 shot at a time, it was nice... relaxing in a way. "Relieving" might be a better word.

Completely opposite what I expected. I figured that I'd get tense and stressed out and bobble easy shots. If anything I focused more under the "pressure" of losing money. If it was $1 I wouldn't care and it would be a simple game for fun. $5... I can make purchase of a full meal (lunch). Or I could buy his lunch. I'd rather he bought mine.

Point is... I like it, and I'm not going to stop any time soon. But I'm not going to go out playing $100 racks or anything crazy like that either.

Yet.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

2008-01-31T19:50:00.001-06:00

Tuesday was league night again. I met the player that I failed to meet last Tuesday... I think his name is.... who knows. I wanna say Mike or Migal or something. Michael? Whatever

League was a good time, I played a match in a race to 3. I noticed early that my opponent didn't pay much attention to where his cue ball went after hitting the target object ball. I decided I'd use this to my advantage.... if I found the
opportunity.
In the 2nd rack my 7 was tied up with one of his spheres and the 8... I missed the break out with my one possible key ball and decided to play safe. Hit the 6 a little hard, it dropped, and I hooked myself. Couldn't have planned a better safety. Damn.
So I decide to give the guy a shot, and play what I call a "fake safe"
Miss on purpose, but leave the ball in the jaws of a pocket

so I move my 2 ball about 6 inches closer to a corner pocket, but I still don't have a decent possibility for a break out.
Now this is off the break, so he still has every one of his stripes to play safe, or run... which a smart player wouldn't do. Not with this layout. From my seat I'm analyising the table and trying
to figure out how I'm going to kick out of the safes that he could possibly put me in.
So he puts together a 2 ball run, then an odd strike into the cluster. MY cluster. Odd choice, but it freed up both my 7, and the 8 ball.... I'll take it.
So I'm 2 up and we're down to the last 4 balls on the third rack... 1 of those 4 is mine.
I make my last ball but scratch, giving up ball in hand. He knocks a couple down... has the 9, then he's on the 8. He hits the 9 into the closest side pocket... a soft hit, setting himself up for the
8. From my angle I immediately see that if he doesn't put a good amount of top... or a strong draw stroke, he's going to scratch.
Well, he hits the 8 into the called pocket and the rock slides smooth as a slip & slide on a sweet summer day in June... right into the far side pocket.
3-0 Rabbit

As you can tell, Tuesday's league wasn't very
exciting... Driving to league, on the other hand,
was MUCH more exciting.

As you may know... I recently bought a new vehicular (pronounced: Ve-heck-u-lurr) mobile.
On Tuesday we had a decent snow fall. My Tuesday night team moves to different bars every so often. Last week we were at a bar I'd been to once in my life.

So I'm driving along one hand on the wheel music turned down to a low hum so I can call for directions. Only an inch or two on the road and I'm cruising at 35-40mph

The telephone's voice tells me I've gone to far, and should have taken a right where I kept going straight.
So I find a good parking lot, dip in, flip a b**** and get back on the road.
Now, just for the record, the wind is kind of heavy in various places and there's snow drifting across at some odd 15mph gusts. Kind of hard to see through.
So back up to 30... 35mph and I'm cruising along, eattin' potato chips, talkin' on my cellular device, adjusting volume, ensuring the heater is on high, hitting the wiper blades.... this is what they call multi-tasking. You know... the usual.
Actually I was driving while on the phone getting directions at about 30-35. Nothing more. I'm on one of those 2 lanes for each direction type road... I'm in the left lane. As I'm nearing my destination I notice a pair of bright white lights surrounded by little yellow lights drifting from the other direction into my lane.
I let off the gas in preparation of evasive maneuvers.
The lights get bigger and brighter and the distance between them and my life decrease.I quickly realize it's a semi.

An 18 wheeler driving a little faster than everyone else because he can see out over the random snow drifts.
15,000 tons on top of 18 wheels of death, bumbling towards the van.
The phone yells in a clippy static language I'm too unfamiliar with to respond. I tell it "hang on"
Setting the phone in my lap I grip the wheel and think out loud "airbag don't fail me now... Brace for impact"
Gripping the wheel tighter with both hands in attempt to prevent my head from flying into the approaching grill.
This is the part my subconscious took over
This is where I completely stopped thinking, and somehow know exactly what happened, and why.
Aware that I was driving faster than everyone else, there was no need to check my blind spot... no one was there.
My submerged mind turned the radio up 2 notches and drifted my body (van included) into the right lane...
Narrowly avoiding the chrome bummer my headlights reflected off of a split moment before
I find the phone in my lap. Putting it to my ear I inform "thanks for holding, I was avoiding death."

When I arrived at my destination the door guy checked my ID... When he realized I was a Coloradoian... we made a bit of small talk...

"Colorado, right on... what part?"

"Colorado Springs most recently, but I've kind of bounced around"

"Right on, I lived in Boulder for about 10 years"

"Cool, I grew up in Golden until I was about 16. Love it out there, especially Boulder"

"Yeah, same here. The snow is worth it out there."

"What do you mean?"

"Snow is worthless unless you have large hills... like the mountain kind for snowboarding. Just f***s up the roads."

"You have no idea man, no idea"

So it was a good night. I taunted death, and then shut out my opponent in a league match.

Title is according to gullible.com

League Started Last Week

2008-01-28T14:56:00.000-06:00

I have league 2 nights a week. Same team members save 1 or 2 people... One night travels from bar to bar, and the other is an in house league (it doesn't travel)

So I went to play on Tuesday, straight from work... walked in, ordered a beer and let the cue stick warm to the temperatures of the room. After watching 2 practice games I was up.

I racked, his break came up dry with a good spread.. if you ignore 1 cluster. The stripes had a key ball that might break up the cluster... solids didn't.

I put down the 15.. then the 9.. then the 12.. then the 11 to break out the 14... then the 13 and came back around for the 14.

7 balls... 7 strokes... and I'm not exactly perfect on the 8, but it's a makeable cut. Has to be perfect though, otherwise it won't squeeze through the 1 and 6 gate 7inches from the 8ball.

So I shoot the 8, and leave it as a perfect hanger. Right dead center pocket.

He goes, plays safe behind a makeshift cluster.... I kick 3 rails, make the 8........ and the cue.

I lost.

Run the table, and lose on an 8ball scratch. Damnit man, damnit to hell.

At least I got the run :)

So this sets the pace for the night, and I play too aggressively and lose my match,

1-3 Bar Guy

Thursday night I started out strong on the practice table, and after about 3 racks I find that I'm unable to put together a 2 ball run.

I start playing the match, and I decide to play a little wiser.... and I win.

After finishing the 2nd rack the guy I'm playing starts telling me about how much his night has sucked. His car blew up, girlfriend dumped him, walked 2 miles in 5 degree weather, and his $1000 cue was stolen so he was borrowing his captain's $200 cue. Now, if you know me --at all--... then you already know I don't give a crap about anyone's sob story. So this guy telling me that his life sucks and the tears keep refilling his beer before the waitress- doesn't affect me at all. As a matter of fact, I remember saying "Wow, that sucks. Ready for the next rack?"

3-0 Rabbit

Tomorrow night is another league night... we have a new player on the team. Someone I've never met before, but seems like he'll make things interesting.

Time will tell

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated

2008-01-25T19:06:00.001-06:00

The car I used to drive is what some would consider a text book example of a "clunker"

Which is exactly what it was... is. The car has seen it's days, that's for sure. The roof used to leak bad enough there was a bucket on the passenger side floor when I bought the car. The bucket had only been there a day or 2 so all the water that leaked in had been soaked up by the gracious carpet flooring.
Still soaked to this day.

The passenger side mirror was missing and the rear defroster wires didn't work.

Under the seats the metal is rusted so badly the previous owner sat d own in the driver's seat and the entire chair fell backwards in a fury of broken metal. Instead of driving like I have arms longer than my legs, I decided to prop the seat up.

I needed a device. After about a week of searching and thinking and using beer boxes and crushing laundry baskets... by a dumpster I saw it.
A night stand, perfect... I opened the back door, shoved this night stand into my car propping the driver's seat closer to the steering wheel than desired...
but it was better.

The breaks were squishy and the dome light/cigarette lighter/hazard switch... all didn't work. They all went out the same day.

The antenna was broken off so I only received AM stations... ick

Oh, the heater didn't work either. Over the past month or so it's gotten pretty cold, cold enough for frost.
About a week ago I went outside to go to work... it was a fairly warm 30something degrees, but above freezing nonetheless.
All the cars in the parking lot were free of frost and happily blinding me with the reflecting sun.

Then you get to my car... no frost on any of the windows at all, smooth as glass. And then you open the door and step inside, closing the door behind you creates a trap of ice and chill.
Every window is covered with ice on the inside of the car. Without a heater/defroster, I own an ice scraper.. for the inside of the car.

I also own a 3 wick candle and a book of matches for the same reason.

The point of all that is I made purchase of a van! A shiny not new but new to me van!!!

Whoot!

It has heat, auto windows, a radio that works, and a remote key door locker thing

yey!

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order

2008-01-18T23:34:00.000-06:00

League started last night. I didn't play in a match, but I did play very well.

Since starting my resolution, I've blown it off every chance I've gotten... and I'm ok with that.

I played my team captain... he played well, but not top of his game. We played 3 sets of 8ball.
First was a race to five... he won the first rack, then I won 3 in a row, then he caught up so we were at 3/3, then we went back and forth ending at 5/4 - Rabbit

I got another beer for the both of us, and we started a race to 3

he won the first 2 and then I took 1... he won that match.
1/3 - Cap'n

It was getting a bit late and we both had to work in the morning, so we wrapped the night up with a cozy race to 2.

I made a stupid sell out on the 8 at the end of the 2nd game and he won that one. But I took the match
2/1 - Rabbit

I was in stroke... I felt good and I wasn't over thinking every freaking shot.
It was nice... a lot more like practice. Easier to develop a rhythm and see the patterns.
Being in stroke gives me greater satisfaction than many things... here's a list to give you a better idea:

Likes
I like it when blinkers on different cars are in sync at a stop light.
When the rain is warm
When people bend the rules without offending anyone, and no one complains about it.
I like it when the guy in front of me sees my blinker and inches forward so I can get in the turn lane.

and for balance... the Dislikes

When people talk to me when I'm reading... psh, like I read that often
Myspace profiles that make the music Auto-Play (I HATE that)
I don't like people that run red lights.
People that can't appreciate a good defensive play/safety in billiards
Stupid simple movies created solely for the purpose of profit
Music videos that show the band playing for no apparent reason

When the TV is turned up louder than it has to be

The most difficult part of this night were 2 girls running around offering free drinks of this new Miller Chill crap. They're cute and outgoing... just as a beer girl should be... and I'm thinking my Cap'n might want to pick up on one. So I'm trying to play wing for him a little, but still pay attention to the game.
A difficult balance.

It's ok though, because I still won.
Ahhh... the joys of winning.

"abstemious" and "facetious." (a-e-i-o-u)

The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps.

2008-01-08T17:28:00.000-06:00

On sunday I went and played for about an hour. I decided to practice the shot I mentioned previously... and as it turns out, I really do have an Achilles heel. I'm under cutting the long shots... slicing them right into the 2nd diamond. Damn.

I hate drills too.
Double Damn.

I'm going to do the double damned drills and get proficient at these damn shots, damnit.

Back in early November I played in a regionals qualifier... Single elimination. Lost my first game, 4-0... at least it was a good lesson... lesson learned, don't give him a shot.
He ended up not making it to the final table.

About an hour later the LO (League Operator) decided that we had enough time for another qualifier match before league started...
Since I lost my socks the first time around, I decided to put up another pair of knee highs.

We drew tables... I drew the same table... just so happened I drew the same guy, again.
I-Pod and all.

We start to play... this time I decide not to give myself any slack, and play the table... not the player.
So the first 2 games I lose fairly quickly.... then I win 1, then win another... before I knew it we were hill-a/hill-a

The LO wanders over and mentions that whoever takes this win has a serious chance of going to the final table... judging on how we're playing compared to the other players.

Have you ever seen the movie "The Devil's Advocate"? Well, if not... you should watch it. Anyhow, there's a part in there where the Devil guy is talking to tom cruise or whoever the actor is and says something to the effect of "under pressure some people focus... and other people fumble"
That's paraphrased, but you get the idea.

As it turns out I don't fumble... I focus.
I win... win again on the semi-final's table... now I'm waiting around for the other semi-final table to finish up so I can complete the qualifier.

On the final table is my team captain and some other guy. A race to 5... both are playin' pretty sporty... here I'm wondering if I'm going to play my team captain (whom I've never beat unless he was half in the bag) or this Random Yahoo that I've never met before.

No idea what the end score was between those 2, I mean... seriously... it was 3 months ago...
but I end up going against Random Yahoo

I win the lag but end up losing the first game... he breaks... 8 on the snap.
Bastard... he's already 2 up and it's only 2 racks in.

He breaks again, I miss my target... he misses but also scratches...... OPen Table... Ball in hand. Sweet.

I run 4 then safety, he kicks, good hit but gives the table back.
I clean up from there.
2-1... Random Yahoo

I break, make 1... same as last game, 3 or 4 then safety... works, I win

2-2

Early this session I was a lower level player... so this put me on the hill... and he still needed 3 games to go.
Sweet.

So I break again and come up dry but there's a cluster to mess with.
He starts dropping balls and with every drop the cue ball goes within inches of the cluster f---

Doesn't break anything out and misses what would have been a beautiful safety.
So I ran a few and leave him kissing the cluster with no other shot.

He swings... hopes... and misses. But it's a good hit....... too bad for him that I don't have a cluster to mess with.

2/3 - Rabbit

The point of this little story is that same day the LO gave me a post card thing to mail in so I can get a little "packet" regarding the regionals. I have about 2 months left before the packet is supposed to arrive... and I've still got the post card, I've even got a stamp on it, and I have it in my pocket...
still.

God I'm a procrastinator.
I should resolute not to be.

Meh, Maybe next year.

New Years was so long ago

2008-01-04T13:16:00.000-06:00

Resolutions.

Why?

I like the idea of saying i'm going to improve on something or do this or do that... but in all reality
I'm lazy.

I might focus on the "something" for 30 days or so, and then get busy with forgetting about the resolute... and well, stop resoluting. That's a word... (resoluting) promise.

Anyway, I made a resolution to forget about... it's to improve significantly at pool.
Something about working on long shots... making 9/10 attempts when the OB is 7+ diamonds distance from the pocket.
I would go for 10/10, but that's not a realistic goal... and I'd quit.
Also to make a minimum of 1 ball on the break 4/5... 8/10 attempts.

This 2nd one is so totally not realistic... but whateva... aim for the moon and reach the sky, right?

Wish luck!

Mullets aren't always winners

2007-12-31T01:39:00.000-06:00

To the left... we have a balanced diet... take note.

Another league night was ... last night. And as it turns out, I'm a retard.
I was on the hill... only one 8 ball to go and I've won the match.

I had the 5 in the corner (which I rattled 2 strokes prior) and then the 8 (about the middle of the table, but close to the side) and that would take the game... the match... yey.

So I hit the 5 with deep draw... the 5 drops to the center of the pocket as predicted... the cue ball, with huge back spin... quickly grips the felt... climbing straight back to my cue... I pick up my bridge/stick/self allowing room for the cueball to drift into position on the 8...
instead it drifts flawlessly into the side pocket.

This is the part where my subconscious took over. It sees the 8 ball... and the rock in the pocket... and my subconscious decides FOR ME that I had lost this rack... let's go again. So I grab up the 10 and the 12 (other player had the 10, 12, 8) and I'm about this close to grabbing the 8 ball and setting up a new rack, when I realize I didn't actually lose the game. I just committed a ball in hand foul, but I haven't lost the god damned game!

So I informed my opponent that he has ball in hand, and can replace the 10 and 12 ball where ever he likes.
He ends up rattling the 8, so I win the game/match/night.
3/0... I'm a winner
my team started the night in 3rd place... so chances are we're goin' to the play offs... we'll see.

If you play pool, you know when you're on... you're on.
You could run the table and make a grilled cheese sandwich at the same time you're so f***in' on.
Well... I was on.
I played for fun against someone that would usually beat me senseless... instead it felt like I beat up on some little kid... the usual better player ate my socks.

Word to me winning.

Pay for your gas or lose your ID

2007-12-28T12:47:00.000-06:00

Last night I filled up on gas... and saw these instructions how to pay... Hilarious

Last night was league night.

I play 3 nights a week... 2 of those nights I go straight from work, and have pretty much zero time to warm up. So I'm playing matches cold.
I usually play better when playing against players of a better skill level... I tend to focus more... care about my shots more... etc.

Last night I played a skill lever 1 lower than mine. Here's how all that went...

- I won the lag, broke empty, she made a few nice shots, and I made a few nice F*** ups... 1 giving her ball in hand which she ran out from.
- The 2nd rack she broke, a solid dropped, we went back and forth... she's a pretty agressive player that leaves herself with shots that didn't need to be as difficult as they were.
With this in mind I played some "oops, I meant to make that" safety's. Parking the stripe in the jaws or nearer the pocket in general, but leaving her a tough bank or kick.

Didn't work, I lost my socks... 2/0

This win put the other team into the play-offs and that's totally fine with me. They're a good bunch of people who are out to have a great time... not out for competition.
On the other hand, I am out for the competition... and then for fun.
In that order.

So losing sucked, but I knew we weren't going to be anywhere near first or 2nd place so it didn't bother me at all last night.
For me, that's weird.

Avoiding the Nazi's and challenging cartwheels

2007-12-27T18:10:00.000-06:00

I've been reading this book by Chuck Palahniuk... same author as Fight Club (the book before the movie). It's called "Choke." About 260 pages in total and it's damn good so far.
I've read 4 or 5... maybe 6 books by Chuck, and all of them have been great.
Except 1... "Diary"... Garbage.

Anyway... So the other day I had to fly from Denver back into the Chicago area so I could do the whole family food thing.

Forecast today:
Denver... Sunny at 45 F
Chicago... Blizzard hell with a chance of warmth inside a building.
So the flight was delayed about 30 minutes, no biggy.

During the first half or so of the flight, crammed between a pre-med student studying sexual reproduction, and to my right was a "let's move around a lot with no consideration of the 1/2 inch space between me and anyone around me"... I was reading this book, Choke. Since I woke up at something like the ass crack of dawn o'clock in the morning... I was a bit tired.

Now, if you've ever been on a plane... you know what turbulence feels like.
For those of you who don't... here's a little summary.
Think of a roller coaster. One of those wooden ones. Add a blind fold, and get in.
You feel the roller coaster jerk and rattle as it leaves the docking station... lean back as it pulls the carriage up the first hill... and then it reaches a plateau, but you still feel a bit of the jerking and rattling.
This rocking and rattling and jerking of the seat is turbulence. It's pretty random, and usually accompanied by a small whimper of the person in the seat behind you or a child's high pitched scream 6 seats back.

After the plane took off the air above the first 5 or something states was solid, no turbulence, comfortable... and sleep worthy.
But I forged on, and read a whopping 30 pages or so before I found myself re-reading the same page over and over, and still not knowing what I just read.
It's like reading the diary of a schizophrenic. Word salad.
Your mind sees "Discount trees from sleep food 75 duck empty ticket," but the words on the page read "When the server presented the $75 bill, you could just pay with the coupon."
That's what it's like. Craziness. And not very conducive to understanding what's happening in a book you're enjoying, so I went to sleep.

At some point in my dream world the teen settled down, closed the windows and went to sleep. The pre-med student decided to take a note out of my book as well, and also took to slumber. FYI, this is odd because it's a flight that left at 2pm. That's afternoon time.

So we get near the area of Midway/Chicago/IL/Blizzard/Near Death... and I wake up due to a calming scream several seats in front of me.
I quickly realize the plane is on a hard right turn. Apparently we were under attack from the nazi's of 1944 and our pilot was avoiding the flak cannon fire from below. Then the plane leveled out for a long 0.23 seconds and then swooped into a hard left bank this time. Gravity grabbed my body and pulled me into the pre-med student. My $5 Seven and Seven drink slid across my fold out table thing, catching it just before it spilled across pre-med student's right leg... I took a drink.

Impending doom requires a stiff drink.

Midway airport is conveniently placed in the middle of a suburban area... so as you're landing, you can pretend we're going to undershoot the runway and end up in the middle of someone's living room watching Grey's Anatomy.
After avoiding flak, nazi air-o-planes, missiles and nuclear detonation... we were approaching a 3 story house built in 1985.
Out of the window I see wood paneling, bricks, and a wooden deck fly by. when we get just above the roof tops I feel that familiar roller coaster feeling... turbulence... and I see the wing erch down toward the runway/ground/death.
My thoughts are suddenly filled with cart-wheels and 2nd grade competitions with girls. I never did have a competition with a plane in 2nd grade.

Props to the pilot... We all survived... and are hero's for it.

I got food for christmas

2007-12-26T12:01:00.000-06:00

And lots of food at that.

In the past 20 some years that I remember every year I'd go to my grandparents house or an aunt and uncles... the entire family would arrive with their tubaware and crock pots and glass dishes of random foods.

My favorite was always the smashed potatoes and the white meat of the turkey. I'd get a side of corn and mix it into my grey-white mound of gravy covered potatoes creating heaven... pair that with my sandwich of moist turkey and butter on a couple of french bread slices or a butter roll, whichever my arms could reach at the tender young age of --I don't remember, younger than now.

Well... a few months ago I moved to a different city, state, family, zip code and life... depending on your viewing angle.
I went to 2 different homes, and ends of the social entertainment spectrum, over xmas eve and xmas day. Eve was the classy day... You know how it is, use a coaster, take your hat off, you're in the military again.. so eat your peas and prepare for the hurry up and wait of this environment.
The eldest of this box makes 1 of the best cheese cakes I've ever consumed.
TONS of fun.. stuffy, boring.. fun.
Great wine though.

Then there's xmas day... Box number 2. Good times and good humor... and better beer. This is the fun side of the family, and this is also the best food side of the family, as it turns out.
Everything was awesome food... from the cheese covered potatoes to the cauliflower wrapped in melted cheese and the stuffing with the perfectly moist light colored turkey meat... insert nirvana angelic muzak here because that's how my belly felt.
For desert - I love cheese cake... and this family had some cheese that was .... well, soft and creamy. Gross.
If I'm eating a cheesecake, it's gotta be firm and with a comfortable tasty factory manufactured gram cracker crust.

Other than food, I recv'd a book that I've been wanting to read... and a movie (see "The Big Libowsky") to boot. Good christmas!!

Other than that... I didn't play pool. Haven't played since Sunday... 10 days ago. Damnit. Feels like a lifetime.. But did give input on a new name for our league team.
Final results are pending.