Oh yeah, I still have a blog

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)

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?

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?

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

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 :)