Everybody into the Pool

I have been interested in pool for decades, even though I have never played a round of it in my life.  I first remember seeing an actual pool table at a cousin's house.  Strangely enough, it was the same one who had the swimming pool where I learned how to swim.  It was in the attic, but I wasn't allowed to really touch it.  Maybe my mother thought I was too young for it;  I don't remember.  I just liked the colors, the numbers, the sounds the balls made bouncing into one another.  I just wanted to play.  I don't remember ever really seeing the pool table again.  I think they may have gotten rid of it at some point, before I could ever get the chance.  I begged my mom to get me a toy or small version to play with, but she never did.  The next chance I got was in high school.  A diner near the school had a table, but my mom never would let me go in,  for one reason or another.  She even said one of my great-aunts once lived in a pool hall.  I can't remember exactly which house she was talking about, either the one she was currently living in or another one I had never was in.  It was high school that I began to watch pool on television.  School let to early one day, and there was nothing on television for my to watch but some women's nine-ball on ESPN.  From that time on, I would try to catch any match they televised.  Unfortunately, the ESPN family of networks have too many real sports now to air many lower level matches anymore, at least when I can view them.  Heaven forbid they interrupt coverage of professional and collegiate corn hole tournaments.  In the late 90's, I got my first pool video game for my Playstation.  It was Backstreet Billiards.  I must have played that game for times than I did any of my other titles.  It had a weak story mode about the lead trying to get revenge on the person who murdered his father.  He had to explore all of these pool halls, collecting information and tokens, to find his way to boss and beat him at his own game.  After defeating each opponent, a new level opened up to play on its own.  The free mode was actually very fun.  You could play 8 or 9 ball, even some billiard matches, all against a computer opponent (or another player, but that never got to happen).  Unfortunately, it was one of the many discs that got damaged in the flood, and I haven't been able to get a replacement or similar quality.  I have found a few online games, but none feel as  good as that one.  I still want to play the actual game, though.  With my geometry skills, I think I could do well at it.  I might have had opportunities in college, but I was too scared to take them.  Still, I have read books and studied, so when I do make the moves up to the actual game, I think I have a decent shot of doing well.

An Unhappy Anniversary

This past weekend was a little rough for me, as it is most years, and not just because it was Fathers' Day.  Seriously, seeing so many people thanking the fathers in their lives, or by being one themselves, frequently brings out how much I missed out on growing up without one and how much I am missing out on by not being one yet.  No, this year was somewhat bad because it is the fifteenth anniversary of the flood that destroyed my home. It occurred about twenty years after the first major flood that had rocked my world.  That time, we lost a lot, but this time was worse, mostly because I had more to lose.  Most of the stuff I owned was paper-based, easily destroyed by water.  I lost hundreds, if not a thousand comic books and magazines.  I lost all but one of my college textbooks, as well as the majority of my collection of other books in my collection of new age material.  Worst of all was the loss of all twelve yearbooks covering my thirteen years of school (I missed out on the annual one year).  In fact, almost all of the evidence of my childhood was gone.  The few things that remained, I barely try to even look at, most of it in such bad shape.  To add insult to injury, I had finally decided  to chose a career, after years of contemplating.  At was mostly down to two choices, with secondary goals yet to be decided.  I had, what I thought, was a great idea for a book series.  I had been working on it for a months.  I was going to actually start writing it.  Or, I would start on a prospective project for a role-playing game publisher that really wanted to work with.   I was going to start on the Monday after the flood for the one project I felt had the best chance.  The flood took all my notes, as well as well over half of my game supplements.  I would have needed both to do either project.  While I would later recreate and evolve my ideas for a book, I had lost much of the thrill for it.  The ideas are still there, but I have since moved on to an easier subject.  As for the game publisher, it changed its business model a few months later.  It has since gone on to change so many times, that I haven't been able to keep up with it lately.  I still like it, but I doubt I'll ever work directly with them.  It has only been in the last year that I finally have chosen  a new path to take, one that would have been evident decades ago, if only I had the support to see it.  That flood took so much from me.  Sure, it was mostly material items, but for me, it was my last links to a past that I couldn't forget.  I haven't even mentioned some of the other things I lost, or the many hassles I have face since then with both my old home and where I now stay.  All I need to say is that I am finally catching up to where I should have been, where I needed to be all along.  If anything else, I can say that it makes me feel a little happier, and what else can I ask for.

'Come Tomorrow' Come Tomorrow

On Friday, June 8, the Dave Matthews Band released their latest album Come Tomorrow.  Hopefully, the day after I write and post this, I will be getting an actual physical version of the album.  I have been a fan of the band since I heard their debut single "What Would You Say" off of Under the Table and Dreaming.  I have yet to actually get this album though.  At the time, I wasn't as carefree in trying and buying new acts.  Still, I liked what I heard and was interested in their future.  I mean, how many rock bands have a saxophone, a cello, and a violin.  I also have never heard them in concert.  Unfortunately, I have been kept on a short leash and rarely get to go anywhere on my own.  Things really picked up for me with Crash, as it did for many fans, and the title track "Crash into Me."  This time, I bought the album on cassette.  I don't remember why I did so, probably financial reasons.  I since have lost or misplaced the original and bought the CD in replacement.  Their next album, Before These Crowded Streets, was the one I have most connected with.  I remember listening to the cassette and reading the liner notes on my way back from Lexington one summer day.  (I wasn't the one driving at the time, so not that a big deal.)  I was just starting to get into Mage: the Ascension as well, at the time, and I created characters based on each faction of the game upon each of the songs.  It was almost like the start of a possible television series, all the detailed stories that album helped me create.  "Crush" is definitely my favorite song off the album.  It is a song I would like to be played at my wedding reception, if I ever get married.  I still like "Crash into Me" better, though.  Their next album, Everyday, was the first one I got on CD, and the first one I got soon after it was released.  I still have to connect "The Space Between" with the September eleventh attacks, due to the fact I kept hearing this song at the time.  Leftover tracks from that album formed the basis for the next, Busted Stuff.  It was disjointed, but the songs were overall slightly better, more complex.  For some reason,  "Grey Street" stands out because of its message of hope in adversity, if nothing else.  Then came Stand Up.  I was able to purchase the premium version of the CD/DVD.  This is when I began to notice how their songs weren't being played on the radio as much, and how hard it was to find their videos on television.  They were starting to lose general popularity.  It didn't help that Dave made a solo CD at the same time.  Tragedy struck during this hiatus, as saxophonist Les Moore died in an ATV accident while starting to record new music.  As "Funny the Way It Is" says, 'somebody's broken heart, becomes your favorite song,' the band came back with the tribute Big Whiskey and the Grougrux King.  They got a new saxophonist, as well as a trumpeter.  A frequent collaborator on guitar also joined full time.  While depressing at times, this was their most critically acclaimed title yet, an appreciation I share.  I can almost see the album as the story of aliens, exploring Earth, only to get stranded here.  They don't interfere, but face a dire decision once someone finds out about them.  I don't know how I came up with these things.  Of course, after such heights, their next album, Away from the World, was somewhat of a let down.  I just felt that it was step back, just reliving previous motifs.  I am still waiting on what the new album will be like.  The promotional materials are all black and white.  Also, elephant imagery has been rampant, but that might not be directly connected.  When I do get the album, I am thinking of even reviewing it online.  But first, I have to get a copy and clear out an hour or so to listen to it.  And maybe a few more times as well.

Spelling Words Are Useless, Especially Used in Sentences

First, my apologies for the mangling of the M. Ciccone quote for my title.  I have been waiting for the opportunity to try to use it somewhere, and today seemed to be the best chance.  Anyway, it is that time of year again.  Last week was the National Spelling Bee.  If you are a long time reader, you may remember how I enjoy watching the competition, as well as pointing out some of its shortcomings.  This time around cannot be more different from last year's event.  Instead of a lengthy championship round that used specialized, but not too rare a list of words, this year had the shortest round possible, with three words connected to philosophical matters.  Leading up to the final rounds, many of the spellers got caught by missing double letters.  I even recognized many of the words, including 'shamir', a worm-like creature from Hebraic folklore that could eat through anything, and 'Mnemosyne', a titan of memory from Greek mythology (it also is the name of a supernatural power from used by ghosts in the White Wolf/Onyx Path Publishing role-playing game Wraith:  the Oblivion).  I especially liked the example sentence used for the last one.  I student wanted to say a prayer for help in a history exam, but couldn't remember her name.  The final round started with the word 'bewusstseinstage' which is a German word that means the conscious state achieved without sensory output, or something like that.  She forgot to double the first 's' and got eliminated.  The other player then had to spell two words to win.  First, he had 'haecceitas', a Latin word describing the most important states of an individual.  Finally, he had to spell 'koinonia', a Greek word for the spiritual communion felt by a group of Christian fellowship.  I don't remember 'Christian' being used in the definition for telecast, but other outlets did mention it.  Overall, it was a good bee.  I laughed at many of the 'use it in a sentence' examples.   I loved the one where Moses was misquoted as sayint the lyrics to Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off."  By the way, the words in blue were not recognized by spell check, which makes a lot of sense if you think about it.