(crossposted to main blog)

I'm off work until Tuesday!

Tomorrow is the start of the Bank Pool division of the Derby City Classic, which I play in every year. I'm actually looking forward to it this year. Unlike last year when I was sorta dreading the thing, and it showed up in my play. Or lack thereof.

This year my mental state is much better than it's been for a long time. Problem is, my actual game is pretty shitty.

My practice sessions have lately taken one of two distinct flavors. Either I don't miss a ball for several hours, or I don't make a ball for several hours. Unfortunately, the latter outnumber the former by a fairly wide margin.

Oh well though. It should still be fun. And it will almost certainly be better than going in to work. I will miss going to the bar and seeing my friends *coughHatGirlcough* though.

I've gone ahead and purchased my entry for the DCC banks.

I'm so out of practice this year.

I've been working on embedding videos, and I guess it's time to test it in public.

So here is an old video of me shooting pool and almost accomplishing something.

Please let me know if it displays okay. This requires Flash 8 I guess. And probably a broadband connection.

I had a pretty good day, pool-wise. Got a new tip on my shooting cue, then went over to this new (for me anyway) Louisville Billiard Club.

It's a pretty nice place. Their draft selection sucks, but they have Newcastle in bottles, so I can live with that I guess.

Not that I drank any beer. It was, after all, the middle of the afternoon.

Played a guy who's a lot better than I am, but I managed to win most of the games. This was mostly because I don't play for money and I think that's all the other guy ever does.

I'd like to say that I'll be going back, but with me it's hard to tell what I'm going to do. I had fun though. I guess that's what's most imporant.

Wow, two entries in three days! Cold snap hits Hell!

Accu-Stats has finally got the 2006 Derby City Classic DVDs up for sale. I, of course, bought the Banks offerings.

Gives me something to look forward to.

It really pisses me off that I don't ever post anything here.

I still play almost every day. I shoot banks, of course, and I'm showing a lot of progress.

At least until I fire up the camcorder, then I suck donkey balls.

I've let a month go by without a single post.

If anyone bothers to read this anymore, they probably figure that I've given up playing or something. And I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking that.

But it's not the case.

I'm actually playing a lot.

I guess, if forced to make an update here, I'd say that I've sort of abandoned the idea of sticking with a particular shooting style. I'm sort of shooting with my regular (if you want to call it that) semi-random style except for certain shots.

I don't have anything else to say at this time.

I'm waiting for the AccuStats tapes from the recent DCC Banks to come out so I can buy them and see what I missed.

People are going to believe whatever they want to believe, but I know what the truth is.

Yesterday at about noon, I realized that I didn't want to be at the tournament. My excitement and interest levels were both at zero.

My first match started at around 5:00, and other than the first game, I couldn't make a ball.

And I didn't care.

Once that match was over, I came home. I didn't buy back in. I doubt that I'm going back to watch. Maybe Monday to see the Banks final matches, but maybe not.

I was expecting this tournament to do too much for me I suppose.

Like I said, people are going to believe whatever they want, but this is the truth.

Losing that match was not the problem, it was only a symptom. Losing that match did not cause me to leave and come home, it allowed me to do so.

I expand on this a bit in my regular 'blog.

For the past couple of weeks, I've at least been practicing.

When, that is, I'm not busy looking for chocolate stout to drink.

I guess I'm looking forward to the thing. Not nearly as much as I have in past years though.

Every year at about this time I usually remark how I'm "banking better than I ever have before."

Well, this year there's a twist.

I'm banking extremely well, but I'm not sure that it even matters.

Compared to previous years, I've hardly practiced at all this year. I wasted a year in my personal life, and some of that wastage has transferred to my pool game.

I'll be lucky to win a match at the Derby City Classic, which starts in just a couple of weeks.