California 2014

Once again its that time of year. I head out west down to The Jay Swanson Memorial 9- Ball tournament. If you can't make it down to check out the action live check out on line here at POVPOOL . That about it for now really just 8 hour of work and a few hour flight and I'll be in sunny LA.

2014

Its been awhile...  (Sidebar it is very hard to type with a cat FORCEFULLY sitting on your lap)
Much has transpired since last I posted and I may one day go back and post about events  (I wouldn't hold your breath, just saying) but for now onward.

A new pool hall opened up in Winnipeg recently "Crazy 8 Billiards and Lounge" I recently headed down to check it out.  Now I'm glad a new pool hall has opened this is a good thing, not so happy that is on the other end of the city, so this place isn't going to become my new hall but hopefully it will thrive and flourish and other pool halls will open hopefully in my end of the city.  So back to the new hall, it a nice place out by the airport and bus depot, lots of parking, and near to bus routes. Moving inside we have 4 - 3.5 x 7 coin ops and 8 - 4 x 8 Olhausen tables.  A well stocked bar and Half Pints on tap! ALL FOUR count them FOUR main flavours on tap, mmm local beer.  It was fairly quite when I was there but it was a Monday and about minus HOLY F**KING COLD!!!




Cold you say how cold is it? Well let me tell you, Winnipeg does have a bit of a reputation of being one really frosty place to live but when the news papers start saying that its colder then it is ON MARS!

Luckily come February I will be once again escaping this frozen rock for sunny LA and the 18th Jay Swanson  Memorial 9 - ball Tournament. So as per usual I have about a month to whip my 9 - ball game into shape.


And now some Blue Rodeo from their new album to wrap things up for now

S.D.and S.T.F.U!

I'm going to keep this short and sweet (It's take way to long to figure out how to do this diplomatically so here it is)

Ladies, Gentlemen, Kids of all ages when playing pool whether it be 8 ball or 9, serious or for fun, RESPECT plays a big role. Today I'd like to talk about respect for your opponent. So

Sit

Down

and

Shut

The

F*ck

Up

Simple concept look I shoot, you shoot, and back and forth till some one wins, I don't need you to tell me that "I made a good shot" or "oh that was a nice try" My ego isn't so fragile that I need affirmation that I'm doing a good job. 

Further more I'm not asking you to come to the bathroom to shake it off for me so when its my turn at the table plant you ass in a chair and wait or in a spot that will not hinder my turn at the table since I am affording you the same curiosity 

Well that is all for now, I'm working on getting motivated to post more but in a toss up between blogging and pool well playing pool wins. I now leave you with a video from Winnipegs own  The Weakerthans

 

Blink And You'll Miss It

So its been a while between post (again I know...) So lets see whats going on.

Prairie Pool Player has deleted and since restarted his blog Re-branded as South Dakota Pool Player 

Mean while over at the OMGWTF page Shes working on a multi-post tale. Seriously good stuff go check it out.

If you follow my twitter / facebook you know the past week I was trying to drum up support for Katimavik on the Aviva Community Fund site.  

And finally once again this crazy Canuk is heading south come February to do battle at the 17th Jay Swanson Memorial Tournament. Last year was out in 2 so this year I'm confident I can do as good if not better.

Well peace out for now. 

This Is A Hedgehog

Alright its thanksgiving (Canadian) so I figured why not do a "cooking" post? What follows is a fairly quick and easy appetizer I give you The Hedgehog (with pictures)

Step 1:
 Ingredients

le ingredients and some of the tools

 2- 250g bricks cream cheese
1 packet Hidden Valley ranch dressing
Pinch or more dill
approx. 200g whole almonds
1 cup "ish" of mayo or Miracle Whip
(trust me use the Miracle whip)
Bacon-bits

Step 2:

Cut up cream cheese and put in to mixing bowl. This will make it easier to mix

Step 3:
 add "whipped Dressing".  Now this is a tricky spot the amount of Miracle whip you use is dependent on what you want the out come to be, but 1 cup is a good bench mark.  LESS and you will have a firmer hedge hog that will be harder to mix and less ideal for out right dipping crackers into.  MORE and you will have a softer hedge hog ideal for dipping but will take more time in the fridge to "set" and you may need to put in a bowl

Step 4:

dump package "Hidden Valley ranch dressing" (side bar any powdered ranch dressing mix will work hell you could go all hard core and add your own mix of spices and what not)






Step 4.5:

Sprinkle dill liberally

Time to bring out the big guns

Step 5: Now if you look at the above picture in the top left hand corner you will see a potato masher and my trusty wooden scraper. That is how I started out mixing every together.... but that takes alot of arm strength and time so I called in the big guns Le Black and Decker Power Pro and when to work.  if using an electric mixer you are going to want to use the lowest power setting you want to mix all the ingredients but not to the point of beating the crap out of them.

Step 6 (oops should be step 4.75)

add bacon bits

Step 7:
Remove from mixing bowl and start placing on plate







Step 8:

Shape blob in to a spherical shape. This is where if you used more miracle whip you may run into problems with it retaining a spherical shape.

Step 9:
Add almonds and arrange in an order conforming to your brand of OCD

Grand Finale

Le HedgeHog

You may want to put in the fridge for a while to "firm" it up but for the most part break out the crackers and your ready to go.  

Tips Ahoy

Tiger "Onyx" on a predator 314 two shaft

And so a new pool league season is just around the corner. So on that note I headed down to ye olde pool supple shop (AVO Billiards) to get some new tips affixed to my shafts. Now for a while now I've been wanting to try the Tiger "Onyx" tip but every time I went in they were sold out not this time. So I had them affix it to the 314 (see left) more on that later.

Kamui Tan

For a while I've been toying with the idea of playing with a hard tip so since I was there I got them to put a Kamui "Tan Hard" on the Z (see right). It was that or a LePro or Triangle and nothing against those tips, I've used them before and like them but I've got a Kamui hard on one of the break shafts and shot a few racks with it and wanted to give it a full try out on a playing shaft. 



Like many things in life "the proof is in the pudding" so today I headed on down to Bourbon St. Billiards to give the tips a test run {so I stopped writing and picked this post up a few days later thus "today" yesterday" things like may not be 100% accurate}

So first up the original 314 shaft that came with the cue with the brand spanking new "Onyx" tip {also for the record I did really do any "test " shots or anything for the most part just racked the balls broke and went from there}  it felt nice not "mushy" or "soft", it imparted a "crisp" feel to most shots and when I was done it didn't seem like I need to shape it or pick it before next time I used it.... side bar I was/ still am a fan of the tiger "sniper" tips but always felt they had a bit of a break-in period that you had to pick and shape and generally monkey with till BAM it was good to go and lasted a good long time. So all in all I'll give it a gold star for getting the job done.

Next the might predator Z shaft with the "kamui hard" tip.  When I first started playing pool after bar cue I moved on to a half busted half fixed Duffrin cue with a hard tip and then a Viking with a hard tip (the shaft had a weird "twang" to it but that's another story) and then before for the most part moving in to the world of layered tips another cue with a you guessed it a hard "triangle" tip. Something about the sound it makes when you hit the ball and not having to really do anything to it maintenance wise, I think this tip and shaft combo could be a real winner for me.

Well now that that is done and only took a freaking week to do..... league starts next week woo woo.  A new team, a new level "Cash +" Here's hoping, I mean if I can finish with an about a 50/50 win lose ratio I'll be happy.

Alright time to put this to the presses

peace

Please Hold For Station Identification

I swear there it a new post and "tip" review coming its just taking a bit long than anticipated to get up but..... should be done  by tomorrow night I swear.... maybe... no seriously tomorrow night. Until then watch this video

 

 

 

and then this one....

 

 

Fuster Cluck Part 2

So I ended up finding the package.... Some jag-off delivered it to my workplace on Monday, and then the morons I work with completely for got about it.  My buddy Lance who knew about the whole cluster fuck ended up finding it on Tuesday... Thank goodness some of the people I work with got their shit together.  Well now that I got that out of the way stay tuned for a pool product review....

You What? Wow This Is Turning Into A Fuster Cluck!

So a la the last post I had a bunch of stuff on order from www.ThinkGeek.com fine no problem, but then some how DHL the company that was supposed to be delivering it completely "SHIT THE BED"! so for the past two days I've been waiting at home for them to deliver it apparently yesterday even though the needed A) $24.50 in duty and tax and B) MY SIGNATURE they delivered it not sure to who but some one WHAT THE FUCK!!! So now their trying to locate it witch could take up to 48 hours?!? Well wish me luck I'm about to phone them again to see if they have found it..... stay tuned

Geek It Up

So in a fit of geekyness I placed an order @ www.thinkgeek.com go and let the awsomeness wash over you, With any luck it shall arrive in the comming week.  In other news its summer the pool off season but as yet another pool team has dis-banded it is time again to start looking / forming a team... ah good times.

I'm Drunk Lets Post

So It"s wendday and 9:30 and I may have been drinking meh no serious post here serious post to come later.

Insert Witty Title..... here

So this is a video for the Black Keys "Next Girl" Let the awesomeness of a dinosaur puppet singing wash over you... good good good.  So I could talk about the play-offs (meh) or the wind-up social (drunken debauchery ending the night with absinthe is never never NEVER a good idea)

Here's a video of the tournament area, sort of just poked my head up and rotated with le phone

 After we were eliminated bought a raffle ticket and went home turns out I won so if anyone want to buy a cue and case or knows some one. 


So I said i was going to wrap this post up 2 days ago but got distracted and life got in the way so I'm just going to post this as is in all its f*cked up glory.

stay tuned
*Ricky Spanish*

Quick update

So we lost our first team match. managed to stay fairly strong till the end. On to the b-side.  There will be more on this as there was some shenanigans.... and some epic WTF moments not for our team but this play off seems to be a wild one... now off to sleep
peace out yo

Play-offs and Stuff

So its that time of year again Aactive League Play-offs (for more info and stats and other stuff go HERE )  Now I can't remember (and yes I'm to lazy to go back and check) if I talked about this but at the beginning of the season I had the goal of finishing the season with a 0 handicap (handicaps range from 0 to 3, long story short 0 means you finished in the top 25% ) and goal accomplished woo woo.  Finished in 25th place (out of 127+ ), won 71 / 112,  915 points,  and 9 wins in a row. 

Now on to play-offs.... the cash 2 singles was last night and after an okay first match win I waited for my second match which I ended up losing.  meh what you going to do. I lost focus for a split second and well that was all she wrote. For the record though next time dude I'm sure you meant well but seriously STFU go talk to some one else if you couldn't tell by my one word answers I was kind of busy, I may not of been at the table shooting but I was still trying to concentrate on the match end mini rant.

On a slightly unrelated but related note bought the NEW and IMPROVED kamui 1.21 chalk and got to say I'm loving it so far.  The old kamui chalk .98 was good and i liked it but it did make a mess of the table and balls in no time flat.  For the longest time I was really bad about remembering to chalk and suddenly I get a chalk that you don't have to use every shot and guess what I'm chalking every shot go figure.  The 1.21 you can chalk every shot and it doesn't make a mess also if you forget it still stays on for a good amount of shots so we'll how it works in the long run...

well that's it for now

peace

Justin Trudeau: Conservatives axing Katimavik - Les conservateurs suppri...

Well said Justin, to bad the Conservative Minister is a douche. 

Adim on Katimavik

Save Katimavik Part 1

So many moons ago I participated in a program called KATIMAVIK (http://www.katimavik.org/) As of the latest Canadian federal budget (http://www.budget.gc.ca/2012/home-accueil-eng.html) Funding was cut (not quite sure how to find it but apparently it shows up on page 218).

Now I'm going to try and be as mature and adult about this as I can but it is going to take every shred of my being. For a brief history on the program check out this link ---->http://www.katimavik.org/our-history

for Wikipedias take check --->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katimavik

Seriously go check it out I'll wait.......... (I fancy I'll go make my self some coffee)............................



and I'm back done reading? Good, now the Conservatives are saying "oh it costs to much per participant so we are going to spend the money on other more"effective youth services"..." WTF does that mean here is a link to several studies and reports done about katimavik

http://www.katimavik.org/studies-and-reports if you check out the "2006 - Malatest ReportSocial and Economic Impact Study of the Katimavik Program " a bit of a read but well worth it to sum it up

4.5 Return on Investment
Analysis of the economic impact suggests that the Katimavik program generates net positive
returns based on the value of the volunteer labour and other induced economic benefits. By
dividing the total benefits by the total costs, a determination of the gross return of the
program can be made. Under the most conservative scenario, each dollar of Katimavik
expenditures generates a gross return of $1.12. This translates into a net return of $0.12 for
every dollar invested in the Katimavik program. Based on the average return, and using the
community partners estimate of the value of the volunteer work, it appears that each dollar
spent by the Katimavik program generates a return of $2.20 in each community, or a net
return of $1.20.


Well that is all for now

Hardtimes Bellflower "tournament room"

T - Minus 6 Hour

So as per title I'm 6 hours from getting on a plane and heading to California. See you all at Hard Times Bellflower

Going Out to Cali...

So every year for the past 16 years there has been a modest pool tournament down in LA called "The Jay Swanson Memorial 9-Ball Tournament" (go google it or http://www.playbca.com). So late last year i was watching one of the TAR pod casts (I think it was the first one you tube it or http://www.theactionreport.com/home.html) and they mention this tournament and I go hmmmm I could play in that. So 1 money order an express post envelope and some postage I was on my way to being entered. I would now like to direct your attention to this link http://www.playbca.com/Events/201216thAnnualJaySwansonMemorial.aspx and if you scroll down the list tada who's got @ thumbs and is playing in "The 16th Annual Jay Swanson.... "The SWANEE">>>>>>>>>> This Guy awww yeah

Now all I have to do is

1. Book off work (easy)
2. buy a plane ticket / get there (hmm ok)
3. book a hotel (oh boy)
4. And the most important of all learn how to play "pro level 9-ball" in about a month

Oh snap yo!!! I mean I've played 9-ball before even played in a few local 9-ball tournament but this this is by far going to be the biggest pool tournament I've ever played in. Its in another COUNTRY!!! If you go back to the list for a second and look at the names of people already signed up I have a shirt that says "What Would Efern Do" hes playing in this Madness i tell you!!!

Well that's all i have for now I'm going to try to be a bit more diligent with the blogging leading up to this as it should be a gooder but for now

Peace out