Am I supposed to be sorry you're busy

I find it rather amazing that people think we care how busy they are and that we should tolerate them not getting their work done. Here's the thing; we're all fucking "busy". I used parenthesis because how much time do we waste of fucking Facebook or twitter or snapchat? But, I don't care how busy you are. Do your fucking job. No fucking excuses. In the extremely rare occasion I don't get something done in time I don't give the "I was really busy excuse". Even if it's the truth. It doesn't matter. I failed. Plain and simple. The reasons for my failure are, and should be, irrelevant to my customers. But we're all so fucking soft nowadays that this excuse too often works, and is tolerated.

And don't tell me how hard your job is. I don't care. Nobody cares. I don't fucking care if you dig ditches and it's hard physically or if you're a fucking rocket scientist and it's hard mentally. Do your job. Cause if your job was easier then you'd likely be replaced by someone who will do it cheaper or possibly your position would be removed altogether and added to someone else's job.

Cause you see, people who own companies like to make money too. And guess fucking what? If we don't make money, you won't have a fucking job. And guess what else? We want to make a lot of money. We have ALL the risk and goddamnit, we will have more than our fair share of the reward. Don't like it? Start your own fucking business!!!

Nurses

So evidently women on "The View" said something about some beauty contestant whose talent was being a nurse. This nurse/beauty contestant told a lovely, heartfelt story about one of her patients. I don't know all the exacts because I have zero interest in this story in particular, and I'm speaking more to the mindset of people these days.

People are getting offended cause that's what we do nowadays. Nurses are feeling disrespected, unappreciated, and humiliated by what was said about them. Not all things in this world are the same, nurses aren't going to get the respect from most people that a doctor will. Does this make what nurses do less important? How is anything different today if these ladies on "The View" had stated how great this was and paid this woman a compliment? People are under the impression that under no circumstances should their feelings be hurt.

I've never been in the hospital for any extended amount of time so I'm unfamiliar, in specifics, as to what they do. And honestly, I DON'T FUCKING CARE what they do. People are the patients, injured and often scared and what you do is completely irrelevant to me, just do your job. This isn't meant to be a knock specifically on nurses, it's for everyone and every field that think they're special. You're not, everyone does a job and that job can be made out to be a BIG deal. I'm in trucking, so, without me nobody would have anything. We deliver clothes, food, medical equipment, medicine, construction equipment, cars, literally fucking everything we use. And you know what, truckers get zero appreciation. And you know what, I don't give a fuck. People don't have to appreciate what you do to make it important.

This is the participation ribbon for adults. The mindset that everyone is a winner, everyone is important, and everyone should be given equal respect. It doesn't work that way. And, if you're concerned that people aren't respecting you, maybe your need for validation from others is the reason they don't respect you and not what you do for a living. Because in the end, who the fuck cares what other people think.

9/11

It's hard not to reminisce about September 11, 2001 this time of year. I was scanning HBO last week sometime and saw "Incredibly Close & Extraordinarily Loud" was on so I decided to watch it again, even though I knew I'd end up crying. Sure as shit, I'm crying much of the movie and then my wife gets home and she's crying too. I love movies based on true stories though. It's fucking impossible to imagine being in those buildings, or in the planes, or knowing someone who was, or being a first responder. Even now, makes me tear up thinking about it. People who's best option to live is jump from a 100 story building, wrap your fucking mind around that.

I'll never forget where I was. I worked as an electrician at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. I was sitting in my car waiting for the van to come to where we had to park and take us to the barracks we were working on. Guy on the radio says that a plane has flown into a building in NYC. My first reaction is, dumbass. I assumed it was some guy in a little 2 man airplane and he screwed up and hit the building. Never occurred to me what actually happened and would transpire. I want to say around 10ish MT it was all over the news what was going on and all of us civilians were being escorted of the Air Force Academy. My brother worked their as well and we went to his house and watched in awe, the television footage.

Nothing more. No political shit. No racist shit. Innocent people died, and the idea that people use it to further their agenda is a fucking travesty. RIP to all who lost their lives, NEVER FORGET

APA Bullshit

I'm not real sure why I play in the APA in a serious capacity. I've played BCA league for years and have had maybe one run-in with another player. Seems to happen on the regular in the APA. I probably have more than my fair share, and the reason is I don't put up with bullshit and bullshit runs rampant in the APA. It's played by people who don't know or don't care about etiquette. The league is what it is and it's not going to change (not that it needs to change) and I need to get out, or at the very least, not be an integral part of a team.

I'm getting tired of the coaching duties as well. I know the game and I can come to a reasonable conclusion as to what the best play is. However, I'm giving advice based on what the best outcome could be if we did it 100 times. So, for teammates to be results oriented over one time (which is what happens) annoys the fuck out of me. They just repeat what else could have been done over and over and fucking over. In all likelihood, my advice is going to give you the best chance to be successful. But, because it's a singular occurrence, you could do the absolute wrong thing and still win/make the shot/get safe/etc. And, likewise, you can do the absolute correct thing and lose. I'm explaining it to them and their response is based on the RESULT of play. I can't have a conversation in which I'm going off of what is expected to happen and you get to go off the results. Cause guess fucking what, I'm probably going to be wrong.

All this pissing and moaning might make one think that we lost, but nope, we won. Now we will be in the next tournament in November. I really don't want to play in this anymore. It's a fucking headache and I'm afraid to lose friends, or weaken a friendship over a game of fucking pool.

Caught a Beating!

Had pool league last night and it was the playoffs. Fortunately the team won, but sure not with any help from me. I lost 3-0 in games and points. I played ok, but the other guy played lights out and got every roll. Not the first, nor last, beating I'll ever take like that. I'm still annoyed about last night, but I don't think it's from my pool. As I've stated, I'm attempting to not let outside factors get to me. They did, I was annoyed from the outset of the night basically. Couple guys in the pool hall acting a fool and in very close vicinity to us. I even got annoyed by the people on my own team, asking and doing stupid things (pool wise) and I was annoyed early on. It's my fault, I always say that "people don't know what they don't know". I don't know everything there is to know about pool but I'm pretty seasoned, and my knowledge is far superior to anyone else on the team.

I'm not the best teacher in the world, honestly, I'm probably a pretty below average teacher in pool. Everything I do on the table is self-taught and 2nd nature. So putting into words what I'm doing is often difficult (especially for an introvert) and I struggle to properly convey the message I want. As mentioned, I learned by doing. And thusly, by failing, over and over and over. I've learned the hard way what is "right and wrong". Now, I'll be the first to say there aren't many things in life that are right and wrong, much less in a game of pool. There are a few hard and fast wrongs though, and when challenged about the wrongness, I get perturbed. Admittedly, he was asking "why" is it wrong, not necessarily that it was correct. I have to say to myself, "Yes I'm good, yes I know what I'm talking about but that doesn't mean someone should blindly take my opinion as fact." And questioning the "why's" is how to get better. I sure as fuck wouldn't accept "it's wrong, trust me" as an answer. If it's so fucking wrong, show me. That's what I should have, and will do, in the future.

I also got frustrated with my player on the first game, of the first match. My buddy is playing and played several safeties in a row and was about to be payoff time and then he banks at his last ball, misses, and leaves shape on the 8 for his opponent. I was so mad. I'm mad because I got him into pool and he's progressed very nicely and I want him to keep getting better. Safety play is one of the hardest to learn and he was doing it and it was soooooo close to payoff time and he stopped!! I was baffled. But again, you don't know what you don't know. I will explain to him what the correct play was and show him how to play this particular safety.

Awesomeness

My wife and I do so much cool shit I sometimes forget about all of it. Was sitting here listening to radio and Garth Brooks came on and that reminded me we went to his concert earlier this year. It was spectacular. I'm going to try and remember all the cool shit we've done over the years.

2015:
Winter: 4 Broncos games
September: Upcoming 4 days in Seattle/Tacoma for her friends wedding.
August: I went to Vegas for 4 days for APA Masters pool.
August: Lori went to Tacoma WA for her friends bachelorette party.
July: Vegas - me 10 days, Lori 4. I had BCA pool, teams and singles, she came out at end and we partied it up.
May: We bought a wakeboard boat. We went to the lake many weekends this summer.
March: Garth Brooks concert.
March: Big annual vacation. This year we went on a cruise. We spent the first weekend in New Orleans (we had never previously been) on Bourbon Street. Sailed out on 7 day cruise on Monday, went to Belize, and Cozumel. 10 days total.
January: My annual Vegas trip for my birthday. (yes, we go to Vegas ALOT!)
2014:
November: Weekend breather to San Diego (Imperial Beach) with Sister n law and her hubby. His aunts had a condo we could stay in for free 1 block from the ocean. Cheap, quick getaway.
September: Lake Powell!!! Went with Lori besty for her 30th birthday and some of her family. 1 week on a houseboat. Drinking, playing in the water, and just relaxing. Lots of fun.
August: Vegas, 4 days for APA Masters pool.
July: Vegas, 10 days for BCA teams and singles pool.
April: Big annual vacation to Turks and Caicos. Fucking beautiful! That gorgeous clear blue water, all inclusive resort.  We windsurfed, tubed, and snorkeled. Really beautiful place.
January: Vegas for my birthday. Friends Dan and Erin came with us. 
2013:
November: My favorite vacation of all time. I was playing in a pool tourney in Tampa FL (US Amateur) that I had won a local qualifier for in September. We went to Tampa and spent 3 days there. Went to some beaches, casino, and played some pool. Then we had a time share thing where we would cruise out of Miami down to the Bahamas and then stay in a resort for 3 nights, and then cruise back. We drove down and stopped at several beaches along the way. We were put up in a landlocked crappy hotel for the stupid time share thing. So we got a room at the Omphoy in West Palm Beach for a couple days before we went on the cruise. 

That's about the last 2 years. Pretty fucking awesome time. Excited for our upcoming unplanned trips. Maybe a return to Maui for our wedding anniversary. Us and couple friends have kicked around the idea of Lake of the Ozarks. Gonna skip birthday Vegas and go out for March Madness instead.  

Introvert

I was reading something on Facebook about introverts, like 10 things the like or don't or something, some stupid ass Facebook thing. Anyways, I've never been big into giving myself conditions or labeling myself a certain way. I just roll with the flow and over the years realize certain things that bother me and try and stay out of those positions. After reading the list of things for introverts, I realize that I'm a pretty full blown introvert. Not all the things pertain to me, but the majority do. It's kind of bizarre that at the age of 34, I've finally figured out that I'm an introvert. Now if I could get this to everyone I know and have them not do the things on here I'll be set! That's a joke, the list is convenient for me and wife, but aside from that, life deals you hands that are going to make introverts (or any "special" type of person") uncomfortable and you have to deal with shit. It's nice to know, but, it won't change my life in any way.

My opinion of these types of things, are that it gives us excuses for doing or behaving in an unseemly manner. Yes, I HATE to be embarrassed in public or be put on the spot to talk or answer a question but being a jerk to my wife (which I sometimes will) is not an okay response. I have to try and deal with the situation the best I can. I will say that it's comforting to know that other people go through the same thing as me, and that I'm not some quiet weirdo. One of the introvert things is "Give them time to think, don't demand instant answers", which really applies to me. I'm a fairly smart person, but it takes me some time to form my thoughts and so in an argument or debate I often feel rather stupid because I can't respond quickly.

Thursday League

Had my APA 23 league last night. We had to go to a shit hole bar on the other side of town. I hate this bar, I hate their tables, I hate their bathrooms, I hate everything about this place. But, one of the things I'm trying to work on in my game is not being such a little bitch. I usually get annoyed when I have to play at a place like this, but my goal is to embrace a surrounding I don't like or am not used to. And, to top it off, one of their players was a "talker". Real nice guy, but wouldn't shut the fuck up. Talking to me while I'm playing, which used to would have sent me into a new level of pissed-offed-ness, but I rolled with it. Never getting upset and never letting any of these things get me off my game. I played lights out and won 5-0. First 3 games was a total of 2 innings. The last 2 games were longer because the table was tied up. I safetied the fuck out of this guy and won very easily. Felt good to play well again, I haven't played really good in some time.

Fucking Insurance

On Monday night, some fucktard backed into one of my semi's. Hit the door, air cleaner, and mirror. Well, the total for this is $5100. It was obvious it's the other guys fault but until the insurance does their thing to make sure that's the case, I have to pay my $2500 deductible to get the repairs rolling. The truck is going to be down 2 weeks as it is (probably $10k gross of work) and if I wanted to wait until they got word it was the other companies fault (so I wouldn't have to pay my $2500) it likely would have been 4 weeks. I'll be able to bill back my $2500 deductible and my down time with little problem (hope-fucking-fully anyways) but until then I'm out:
2 nights hotel for my guy - $135
Rental car to get home - $400
His salary while off for 2 weeks - $2200
Deductible - $2500
Grand total $5235 (so far).

For something that wasn't our fault and the other company is insured by the same exact insurance company. I understand things don't work at the speed I'd like them to (or anyone in my position) but it's just the dealing with them in general. I speak to him Tuesday first thing, repair facility sends estimate to him in afternoon. I email and call him 3 times yesterday with no response. He finally gets back to me today and says he never received anything. Fucking jackass.

Shit on my mind

Pool.
I think I might be over playing pool. I have a hard time being motivated to play good. I get there and I'm just wanting it to be over, and I'm not overly concerned whether I win or lose. I used to get up for playing a good opponent and now I basically lay down. If I'm playing well then I'll win or be competitive but if I'm slightly off then I just basically give up. I'm only playing Thursday night league for the next couple months with wife and friends. Taking Tuesday off for foreseeable future and Wednesday BCA league I run will probably start up in October sometime. I'm hoping some time away from so much pool will reinvigorate me. I usually have a lag in summer, but never been this bad. I almost want to not play at all for a while and see how I feel.

Work.
Work been fucking crappy. I've had guys off and break downs and been scraping by. Then, I get everything rolling and some fucktard backs into my truck. It's going to be down for a couple weeks probably.

Life.
I was watching Last Week Tonight and John Oliver was talking about Colorado baker who wouldn't do a wedding cake for gay couple. Oliver stated that the guy had done other things for gay people but due to his religious views, he wouldn't do a wedding cake. Now, I'm all for gays having equal rights and should be allowed to get married and do whatever they want. And, I'm not religious at all, NOT AT ALL. However, if the goal is for people to be tolerant then I believe the baker absolutely fits that description. He's made pastries (or whatever) for gay people as reported by JO. His religion (however fucking cooky I believe it to be) says that marriage is between a man and a woman and he should be able to live his life according to his religious beliefs. If tolerance is the goal, why is it wrong to be intolerant towards gays (or blacks, hispanics, or whatever) but okay to be intolerant to people who hold different beliefs than what's politically correct. I'm most likely in the minority here (among liberal thinking people anyways) but I believe he is tolerant of them (as he's provided other services to them) but he refuses to celebrate their "choice". I don't think we should have to love the things other people do, but respect them and their choices. I feel that was done in this scenario.

In the last 2+ years...

So I got away from blogging for the past 2 plus years and lately I've been thinking that I'd like to get my thoughts out and "on paper."

I'll start with the now and get into what's happened in the past 2 years later. Right now, my pool game is utter garbage. Like, flaming dogshit garbage. I have no focus and I have no competitive drive. I'm playing league too many nights, and thus, I'm playing when I don't necessarily feel like it. Seems like before when I didn't necessarily feel like playing my competitive spirit would come into play and I'd give an honest effort. Now, I'm going through the motions. I feel like I need to take a break from league. Problem is, I'm the league operator on one and my good friend with whom I play the other two nights just bought that league and I feel compelled to keep playing to support him. However, I think at the end of this league session I'm going to be taking a break from league. I'm in a lull, playing the same people at the same places and I've become friendly with many of them and it's turned into more of a social thing.

Lately, I only want to play one pocket on the big tables but 9 ball will suffice if I can't get a one pocket game. Another problem is I usually go after work (and before league starts) and there's not usually many, if any, one pocket players there during that time. I'm not a late night guy and the thought of being at the pool hall until 11pm (or later) during the week looking for a one pocket game is not terribly appealing to me.

I've had flashes of brilliance over that last couple years and that's what makes it even more frustrating. My best game rivals most anyone around and when I get into that gear it's a great feeling. I've had several good finishes in tournaments and now that I think about it I usually do finish in the money or very close to it. My expectations have risen and when I don't bring my best game knowing that I could compete with almost anyone if I did has got me down, waaaaaaaaay down. There are some personal issues that could be playing a role, but I feel like those are excuses to not play well. Making excuses for my failures doesn't interest me in the least.

I also find that I'm making less time to go to tournaments. Seems like 2-3 years ago I'd hit up a weekend tournament at least 6-7 times. Now, maybe, 3-4 times. MAYBE. It's not because my wife won't let me, it's because I find other things more enjoyable. My goal is to get into more tournaments, more big table 1 pocket/9ball, and less league. It's not my goal, it's my plan.

Working

My daily duties for work are finding loads for my trucks. Sometimes this takes no time at all and sometimes it takes many hours especially when I'm playing travel agent. I sit and look through or wait for loads to come up. Today my guy was in Houston and needed to load back to Colorado. Well now I have to sit and wait for a load to come to Colorado, fortunately that just popped up around 9:15am so it only took me 2 hours. He's got a funeral or wedding or something on Saturday he needs to be at. I usually am looking 2-3 days in advance for loads but couldn't find anything for this guy all day yesterday so I was looking for loads the day he was getting empty which sucks cause he's now sitting waiting for me. I'm now looking for loads for two trucks Friday and one Saturday and everyone else is covered until next Monday and Tuesday. If I find loads for the Friday trucks today then tomorrow I'll be able to goof off, golfing hopefully but that's only if I get my loads found. I don't take bad loads just to be done, I make sure I get a good (or best available) load so my guys can make the most money possible.

Long Day

Played in a pool tournament Saturday for APA Masters league. The tournament is free entry and they gave away $1000 for total prize pool. Pretty kick ass considering the guy that owns this league is a liar and overall a douchebag. In addition was a APA captains tournament as well as a BCA tournament there.  Some guys were playing in two or even all three tournaments so if you were playing a guy doing that sometimes you would have to wait til they played in another one.  I played at around 11am and beat a guy on my Wednesday BCA team. Then I played shortly thereafter around 1pm and beat that dude 7-6. Then had a little wait and played around 4pm and beat Doug 7-6 and finished around 5pm. I then had to sit and wait until 10pm or so. I didn't play well at all my last two matches, I struggled having to sit there that long. Most people were in the same boat but they managed to keep it together better then I did. I won $150 for my 3rd place effort so no complaints at all from me but this is exactly what can happen at any tournaments and I've usually not responded well when I've had to sit for an extended period of time. I finished up around midnight so I spent 13.5 hours at the poolhall. I'll be doing it again this weekend though, free entry tournament that the first prize is a trip to Vegas. This is going to be a handicapped tournament and I'm pretty sure I'll have to spot everyone at least one game but I still like my chances to finish real well.

Bat Shit Crazy

I'm going to preface this story with this fact, I take pool very seriously and respect the fact other people don't take it seriously at all or not as much as I.  I expect the same in return, although I almost never get it. So subbing for my team last night I end up as defacto captain because the guy I subbed for is the captain. Other team puts up their worst player, Amanda, and I have to put up someone from our team. We also have real bad player but she wasn't there yet and I damn sure wasn't gonna play a 10-2 race against this lady so I put up Mike, another guy on our team. Well Mike is way better than her but he played bad as was very annoyed by her constant jibber-jabber and he lost 3-0.  It was our turn to put up and I wanted to get the fuck out of there so I put myself up against this guy around my age who's a nice guy and a good player but in the Pool Olympics wouldn't be allowed to even hold my jockstrap much less compete against me(by the way, Pool Olympics isn't a real thing). I win the lag and get to choose the game and look over our skill levels in each game and see my best matchup is in 8 ball but that would take quite a while and I still wanted to get the fuck out of there so I chose 9 ball which can be fucking toss up cause it's slop. The guy I'm playing is saying right off "well at least you'll kick my ass and my skill level will go down" so he was beat before I hit my first shot.  I win the first 2 games pretty easily, making all my shots and playing good defenses when I had to. The 3rd game I made some mistakes and got annoyed with myself and Amanda is still running her mouth about this, that, and the other thing and starts in on why are people so mad and then points at me and says "he's a good player, why is he so mad?" I blow her off because I'm playing a fucking match and don't like ANYBODY talking to me while I'm playing. But this bitch goes on and on and on and on... I lose the 3rd game and win the 4th game and on my way to winning the 5th game (I had to win 5-4 so at this point I'm running to be up 4-1) and this crazy bitch still talking and during her jibber-jabber says "what do you think of me" and I instantly say "you're bat shit crazy." I didn't say it jokingly, I said it matter-of-fucking-factly. Like I would say "no I don't like tomatoes", I KNOW I don't like tomatoes and I KNOW she is bat shit crazy. She sat there awe struck for a few seconds and then kept yapping and joking about it.

Moral of the story: don't annoy people all night then ask what they think of you cause you're gonna get an honest response that you might not like.

What a day!

Started day off with a nice breakfast, 3 eggs, 4 pieces of bacon, glass of OJ, & cup of coffee. Mid morning, Mark (one of my employees) calls me and he had some potatoes rejected and blah blah blah. Broker says give me 30 minutes and I'll let you know where we are taking it. Walmart wouldn't take product but produce markets will usually if the quality isn't perfect. Anyways, he calls back about 2 hours later and gives location and then faxes paperwork over. He doesn't adjust the rate though so I call him and ask him if he expects us to do another 50 miles, an extra drop, and waste an additional 4 hours of work for free. This fucker says well you didn't ask for more money to which I replied do you have to ask your boss for your paycheck or do you assume your going to be paid for working? So then we get into how much and he says that's way to high but let me ask the customer if they can do anything (it wasn't our fault the shit was fucked up, we just transported their shitty product) and he calls back literally 4 minutes later and says we work together a lot you don't have to get so mad. That pissed me off ever more so I said "Do I LOOK LIKE A BITCH? NO? THEN WHY YOU TRYING TO FUCK ME LIKE A BITCH!" Ok, that's from Pulp Fiction but I told him just do the right thing, my guy is gonna lose 8 hours he could have been off work, that deserves money. He says I got you the damn money and I said thanks and hung up. Obviously the customer KNEW he should have to pay extra money for the time lost and extra miles and drop off that's why he had an answer so quick. This is VERY STANDARD practice in trucking so I didn't figure I needed to say "Hey you're not going to try and fuck me here are you?" At the end of it all he didn't even send new paperwork over showing new rate so I just wrote on old one and made a note so when I bill it if I don't get paid I will call him up again and fuck his day up.

 I have pool again tonight, subbing for a guy in the NAPA league which is a new league I started this summer. Here are my stats for the first session:

All games:

Matches Played: 13
Overall Match Record: 10 wins 3 losses
Overall Win Percentage: 77%
Average Points Per Match: 12.38
Match Record Against Men: 10 wins 1 loss
Success Rate Against Men: 91%
Match Record Against Women: 0 wins 2 losses
Success Rate Against Women: 0%
Break & Runs: 5
Break & Run Frequency: Every 2.6 matches

8-BALL STATS
Matches won: 4 Matches lost:  2
Games won: 32 Games lost: 14
Break & runs: 3
8-Ball on the break: 1
Rackless matches: 0
Matches played: 6

 9-BALL STATS
Matches won: 2
Matches lost: 0
Games won: 11
Games lost: 3
Break & outs: 1
9-Ball on the break: 0
Rackless matches: 0
Matches played: 2

10-BALL STATS
Matches won: 4
 Matches lost: 1
Games won: 27
Games lost: 8
Break & outs: 1
10-Ball on the break: 0
Rackless matches: 0
Matches played: 5

You'll notice total games won is 70-25, but it's a handicapped league so I have to beat people by 2-6 games. It got pretty tough trying to be people 8-4 or 9-3. We did win it all though and got some $crilly at the end of the year and qualified for National Tournament as well. Also I got a jacket for most breat and runs. Here was final standings:

 Current Standings PLACE TEAM TOTAL POINTS AVG POINTS PER MATCH PLAYING LOCATION
1 EZ 10                 517                       36.93               Corner Pocket West
2 BBC                   468                       33.43               Corner Pocket West
3 Hart Breakers     437                      31.21                 Time Out
4 Chalk is Cheap   381                      27.21                Woody's Bar & Grill
5 Who Invited That Guy? 377          26.93                   Time Out
6 The Bombs          295                      21.07                   The Arsenal
7 Get Some            283                       20.21                  CJ's Sport Bar
8 Bobby Cheats      274                      19.57               Corner Pocket West

I'm out like a fat kid in dodgeball.

Nice start

We started the year by playing the team that finished 1st last year, we got 2nd. Our team lost 13-11 tonight, we got off to a poor start down 7-3 with them running 6 of those racks. We fought back to 10-10 but couldn't finish. I had an upsetting 4-1 night but my only loss was last game and we lat match. I had a break & run as well as a table run but I dogged a couple shots so overall on night was a "B". Won several bets on Cowboys tonight tho, I love having action on games. It enhances the games 100x over, makes me actually care about who wins Cowboys/Giants game. Got a bunch of bets for this weekend also. Playing in a pool tournament Saturday and then gonna watch every game Sunday. *cue The Pointer Sisters song* I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it!!

Summers over

It's been a great summer, lots of lake time, some pool, and lots of lake time. But fall has arrived and I'm starting my BCA league again tonight. My goal is to win 70% of my games played but this could be hard to obtain due to the format of 1 game at a time, whereas my strength is playing a race. The leagues I played in during summer my winning percentages were quite good but don't feel I played great. But one of the steps to getting better is beating everyone you should. Since the summer leagues I played in were mostly weaker players I felt that I was the best and should win all my matches. I'll post my statistics later but they were solid.

Mind yo business

Again, I find myself talking about a subject I don't have any first hand experience but here's the story. On a Friday afternoon I walk into the poolhall and theres a ring game going on. For those of you who don't spend your free time in poolhalls a ring game is any rotation(ie. 9 ball or 10 ball or even 15 ball) played by 3 or more guys. Each person gets to shoot until they miss and then it's the next persons turn and so on. Well in this particular game there were 3 champs, 1 guy who had very little business, and 1 guy who wasn't good enough to even be in the same room with the champs. FYI, I fall into the had very little business category but I wasn't playing just watching. Back to the point at hand, one of the champs, whom I'll call Australia, had his 6-8 year old daughter there and she was just goofing off while this game is going down. There is a certain kind of language that I expect to hear and engage in while at pool halls even if it is only 4pm. One of the champs, whom I'll call Captain Arrogant, was cussing while they're all playing and having a good time when the last champ, whom I'll call Faggot Ass Meacham, says "HEY WATCH YOUR MOUTH THERES A YOUNG LADY HERE!!!! I hope the capitalization and exclamation points get the point that Faggot Ass Meacham said it load and matter of factly. My general opinion on things is most people don't have opinions, they have COLD.HARD.FACTS and they believe they are without-a-doubt-correct-and-everyone-else-is-wrong. Faggot Ass Meacham let it be known that language was unacceptable. Captain Arrogant ignores comment and in about 5 minutes is load and carrying on and cussing again, and again, Faggot Ass Meacham boasts "STOP CUSSING THERE'S A LITTLE GIRL RIGHT THERE!!!! Shortly afterward Faggot Ass Meacham unscrews and leaves, not even paying his time like a fucking prick. He leaves partly due to his objection to the language around the young girl and partly because Australia is a fucking world beater making him look like a douche. Point being if you bring your child to a poolhall you're going to hear a certain kind of language just like if you're watching a soap opera during the middle of the day you're going to see one tampon commercial followed by another followed by a Vagisil commercial, there's an intended audience for things. For the record I have the utmost respect for Faggot Ass Meachams game, he's 60-something years old and could give me the 7out & breaks, but don't be a jerk...Just mind yo business.

No speaka good engrish

I'm cool with the fact that people in the US speak bad or no english, mostly because I can't change it and I'm not going to piss and moan about something that basically doesn't effect me and I could really give a fuck less about. However, I do believe there are a handful of jobs that, at the VERY MINIMUM, should be reserved for people who can at least be understood. Customer Service falls into this category. I was calling a shipper in Chicago today trying to schedule a pickup appointment and I get this lady who has a thick accent and, just to totally fuck me up, speaks way to god damn fast. I tell her that "I need to schedule a pickup appointment" and she says something that I didn't understand one word of. After a moment of silence, as apparently she has asked me some sort of question that is going to require me to respond I say "Ummmm, I need to schedule a pickup appointment." I'm hoping she thinks I'm an idiot and will talk much slower. This time I'm ready for her fucking mumbo jumbo, I've got my radio turned off & my bluetooth volume set to deafening. Well it took three more times of repeating herself for me to understand that she needs more information for me to schedule my pickup appointment and I don't have this information so I have to get it and call her back. Well fuck me.

I'm back!

Maybe not as big a deal as when Michael Jordan said those words but pretty damn close. This article and video made me think about discipline. The video was difficult to watch and my initial reaction was "what a fucking piece of shit!" Never mind the police charges, or non-charges as it turns out, but the reaction by people. I read some of the comments people wrote and I believe the generation in which you were raised directly correlates to your stance on this video. Some people said it was just discipline while others thought it was full on child abuse and throw both they asses in jail. I was spanked as a child and have no fundamental problems with spanking, that's my guess as I have no children but I don't feel like spanking is child abuse. My problems with this are the fact that both parents had to get their "licks" in. It wasn't enough the child be punished, each felt they NEEDED to line up and give her a good whack. My next problem is the father was beating her because she wouldn't turn over to get her spanking. To be clear I said I don't believe spanking is child abuse but I mean spanking someone on their ass in a purposeful manner, I do believe repeatedly hitting a child on their legs is child abuse. She was not listening to what he was telling her so I have no problem making her bend over. The fact that he was so antagonistic towards her asking her to keep it up and he will just keep hitting her was very disturbing as well. To me this is child abuse and the fact that the Police can't or won't prosecute this guy is ridiculous. One of the comments someone left was "well I bet she won't do that again." This is a fantastically stupid statement. By that same rationale if he had shot her dead that would have been a suitable punishment as well cause guess what, "I bet she won't do that again." People are always going to disagree whether spanking is child abuse and I fall into the not child abuse category but this was way over the top, in my opinion.