The Map of the Day

Today was a good day here.  I woke to the sound of a crow, outside my window, calling loudly into the pre-dawn.  Knowing how smart crows are, I have not doubt that he flew by, saw me sleeping there, and thought he would amuse himself by startling me awake.  He was quite successful!

I rolled out, made a cup of coffee and a bowl of Special K and settled down in front of the TV where I ended up watching "Hildalgo" on cable.  That is a truly enjoyable movie.  When the movie wrapped, I headed over to the Hickory Pit and met Tony for breakfast.  From there, I ran a couple of errands and then reached out to my friend Don to see if he wanted to shoot some pool.

He did, and we headed up to the California Billiards Club - where it turned out they were having some sort of corporate event and the entire place was packed.  So, we switched directions and headed over to Edgies.  We played five games and Don won four of the five.  The changed I have made in my game are starting to settle in. Though I lost four games, I never lost by more than a shot or two.  The changes in style and the additional practice are paying off.  I am starting to zero back in.  I predict that, after another five or six hours of practice, I will be back to the level I was before and then I will begin to advance beyond that.

(While I was waiting at California Billiards, TR called to tell me a very amusing story that I won't repeat here, but I did want to bookmark in in my online journal here so I would remember it.)

After we shot pool, we went over to the Outback at the Great Mall and met Tony for lunch.  It was a good lunch - I opted for the rib-eye steak and the loaded backed potato.  After dinner we took a walk through the great mall, then I headed home for a quiet evening and nice little goodnight conversation with TR.   Tonight, my plan is to read into the evening and alternate with watching episodes of Continuum, Warehouse 13, and perhaps Longmire.

A Paragraph to End the Day

The rest of the day was as simple as the morning. I met Don up at Edgies and shot about two hours worth of pool. I mostly lost.  I decided two weeks ago that it was time to work on the technical aspects of  my pool game, so one of the first things I did was change my grip - which of course through the rest of my game off, in a good way. The new grip allows me to shot truer shots, but since my mind had been trained to compensate for the fact that I tended to pull to the left, now, since I am shooting a straighter line, I am pulling about a degree or two to the right.  Enough to make a visible difference. I figure I need about ten hours of practice to hone in the new grip. In the step beyond that I've started working on cue ball control, through spin and English, to set up the next shot.  That part has been working pretty good.  I think that once I hone my aim back in I'll make a measurable improvement in my over all game. After Edgies, we grabbed dinner at a seafood place, and then I came home, took a short nap, and watched an episode Longmire.  From here, I plan on curling up in bed with Leviathan Wakes.

Into The Ordinary Day

I slept pretty well last night.  I dreamed, but now, four hours after I woke up, I don't really recall what the dreams were about.  I woke up, showed, shaved, and then headed over to Goodies II for breakfast.  I have my usual, the Huevos Mexicanos, and sat near the window, watching the scenery on a gray and cool morning. I often find it interesting just to sit and watch people, wondering who they are and what they are all about.

From there, I stopped at Chevron at Saratoga and Prospect, filled the tank with gas and ran the car through the automated car wash.  (There was a direct hit from a big bird at some point during the previous week.) From there, I came home and watched the Special Features from the Hobbit movie Blu Ray, since I'd watched the movie last night. Now, I am just sitting in the relative quiet of the living room listening to the birds on the patio chattering alone.

My main bird visitors for the last couple of weeks has been a small group of sparrows, numbering about a dozen or so, and they've been pretty amusing.  I've enjoyed their company.  I feel the need to spend a little time writing emails this morning, so I think that is going to be my next task. Beyond that, I am going to head out and shoot some pool with Don at Edgies.  It seems like a perfect day for it.

Normally, when I have some extended time off, I like to spend my time watching movies - however, for reasons known only to the universe, this holiday there just haven't been any movies that I really wanted to see.  There are a lot of loud and pretty movies out there, but I am not really in the mood for the pretty movies. I think I am craving something substantial, in more ways than one.

Ah well, let me fill the morning with some substantial email writing and maybe a substantial pool game or two, then ease into the evening. I am looking forward to the work week, largely because it is going to be a short work week. Friday is my 9/80 schedule day off, so that means I only have to work three days this week.  That will be nice.  With that note, let me head out into the ordinary day.

Simple Note, Simple Night

Just a quick post today. Worked way too many hours during the previous week, so I am basically fried.  Worked a bit today, but only about two hours, mostly doing email.  Still have a lot of tasks ahead of me, which means I am going to be working tomorrow.  No way around it.  There is a strong rumor sweeping through the teams that there is going to be another slip - perhaps a few weeks.  Apparently there are a series of problems lining up against the release date.  We'll see.

I woke in a certain melancholy mood and it rode me through most of the day. I am sure a lot of the driving behind it is lack of sleep and physical exhaustion, so I am going to go to bed early tonight and get a full nights sleep.  I did see an interesting movie off a DVD today - "Cat Run" with Paz Vega.  It was entertaining.  Spent some time later in the day shooting pool with Don (a tie overall) and dinner at Red Lobster in Milpitas, a few blocks away from Edgies.

(Yes, Cat Run is a delightfully trashy as the poster makes it look.)

On Flow

I tried my best to flow through the day and not let my emotions crash over me too often.  There were moments of course, but there always are.  I am deliberately trying to not over think everything. Trying to just flow through the day, to breath, to walk on the earth, to be present. (All credit to the Teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh). So, in the spirit of flowing, in the spirit of being present...

I had breakfast with Bob, over at the Hickory Pit, and from there went over to AMC 14 and saw the new movie, Taken 2, with Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace and Famke Jensen.  It was exactly what it was supposed to be and enjoyable as a pure popcorn movie.  From there, I met Don at Edgies and shot some pool (lost every single game), and then an early dinner at Red Lobster.  Home, a quick nap, a shower, and this moment.

As I went through the day I was pretty much continuously pulled out of the moment by the monkey mind, by all the unanswered questions that flow through us in emotional times. I am hoping that my mind stills and I am able to enjoy the evening.  I think the shower and the nap helped. Plus, one of my new favorite shows comes on this evening - Copper, on BBC.  If you haven't watched it, I would definitely give it a very high recommendation.

Pool as a Metaphor for Life

I was out this afternoon shooting some pool in Milpitas, when I got to thinking about pool as a metaphor for life. I'm not really sure what turned my brain that way, other than the Ghosts of October and an earlier conversation with T.R.. I think those two things put me into that mode. So, as an exercise, let's consider pool as an extended metaphor.

Equipment Matters: Anyone who has ever played more that a casual game of pool can tell you that your pool cue matters. It has to be the right weight, the right diameter, and the right length for you and for your body. All of that combines to put your into the right position for the pure mechanics of playing pool. Yes, you can play a good game of pool with less than optimal equipment - but good equipment matters. The same holds true in life - buy quality, quality matters.

Know the Table: Every pool table plays differently. They may be faster or slower, they may be more or less responsive, and the pocket can be tighter or looser. You have to adjust your game to the table, because the table is not going to adjust to you. The differences between tables can be drastic, or they can be very subtle. A table can add shots to your game or subtract shots from your game - they can make you think you are better then you are or worse then you are. So there are really two life lessons to be learned from the table - one, local conditions, the local environment, really matters, so pay attention to it, and second, those very same local conditions can throw your self perceptions off, so once again, be aware, be perceptive, pay attention.

The Break: Yes, there is skill involved in the break, but there is also a deal of luck. When it comes to the break in pool and the breaks in life, the best you can do is relax, breathe, and do the best you can. When the breaks fall your way be ready to take advantage of it. When the breaks don't fall your way be ready to take a deep breath, let it go, and focus on the game at hand.

The Game: Pool is essentially a very simple game. You win by sinking all of your shots. It is all about the basics, it is a game of percentages. So you focus on the simple things and build from the ground up. You have to make all the basic shots, you have to make them consistently, and you have to make them frequently. Life is a lot like that. It is all about the basics. Yes, you can sometimes make the fancier shots, the more complex shots, the more difficult shots - but if you miss the basic and simple shots, it won't matter. So in life, as in pool, focus relentlessly on the basics and make the simple shots.

Winning and Losing: When you play pool it is never about a single game - whether you are playing casually or tournaments, pool is very much about consistency over time. You will win some and you will lose some, but if you win more than your lose, you are ahead in the game. You'll have hot streaks and cold streaks and freaky streaks and every other imaginable streaks in between. They'll elate you and frustrate you. But it will all come back to consistency over time.

Well, that pretty much sums up my metaphor of life as pool or pool as life. Maybe there was a little insight in there, maybe not - either way, I have a good day shooting pool - and at the end fo a few hours of eight ball, it was 6 for me and 4 for my opponent - and consistency over time wins the day.

Pieces of the Day

No collection of "ordinary" pictures from my world would be complete without a picture of my beloved Crackberry. (Actually, it is a Blackberry Curve 8900.) The Crackberry is my constant companion - the only time I set it aside is when I decide there is a time for me to be off the grid for a while, otherwise it is almost always close at hand. I love the connectivity of the modern world and I often wonder (and T.R. and I have often discussed) what the future is going to hold, what the experience of that future would be like. It is basically beyond the edges of our comprehension I think.

Today was an interesting day on several levels. I slept well. I woke up about five a.m. and then managed to linger in bed as long as I could, which was until about six a.m. I watched "Nikita" on the DVR to start the day. I met the guys for the usual breakfast at The Hickory Pit, then circled home for a bit.

From there I went up to Edgie's in Milpitas and spent a couple of hours playing pool. While I was there I had a strange event. When it comes to stress I tend to carry my stress in my shoulder muscles and for some reason, as we got ready to play pool, I realized that I was carrying a tremendous amount of stress. My neck and shoulder muscles were tight to the point be being uncomfortable. I did some Tai Chi and some breathing exercises to let the stress out. They worked and by the time we were finished playing pool I had dropped the stress.

The strange thing about it is I really can't think of why I carrying the stress - perhaps there was something going on in my monkey mind that I was unaware of, something at the subconscious level, but it is hard to say. Don and I did talk briefly about the performance management cycle at work, which is always a stress inducer for me, but I am not sure that had anything to do with it. One of my brothers was texting me through the morning and he was off to a funeral, so perhaps I was carrying some residual stress because of that. Even now, here in the evening, I am not really sure why I was carrying it.

After the pool playing, I wandered home and took a short nap on the couch, which was nice. From there, I went to Mama Mia's on Hamilton and had a bowl of minestrone soup and cheese ravioli in meat sauce. It was very tasty. From there, I wandered home and tumbled into this moment, where I am currently writing this entry and watching some comedy with Rumer Willis (Bruce Willis and Demi Moore's daughter). It is - a typical teen comedy and as soon as I finished writing I will do some channel surfing and see if there is anything worth watching tonight. If not, then I will curl up on the couch and spend part of the evening reading.

The Light of Minimalism

Well, a sudden flurry of action on my road toward a more minamalist life style and it was all sparked by the the death of my lamp. For more that a few years I've had a black halogen torch style lamp as my primary lamp in the livin room.

On Satuday, it died - it simply stopped working and some basic trouble shooting could not reveal the problem so I decided it was time to get a new lamp. With a little help from T.R. I found an excellent lamp (Possini Euro Lightstack). I checked it out online and instantly knew that it was the one.

On Monday, after a game of pool at Edgies in Milpitas, I drove to Lamps Plus and gave it an in person inspection - it pased with flying color - great lines, great texture, excellent warranty. The only challenge was loading it into my car - the box it came in was taller than I was. Fortunately, with a bit of a front seat overlap, it fit.

I got it home and spend some time assembling it, having made a strategic error earlier in the day by vacuuming the living room floor and then unpacking the light. Once assembled I moved it into place and was instantly pleased by the purchase.

Besides being a great looking and working lamp it "fits" on a certain level. The old lamp was the bright halogen and this one is a significantly softer and warmer light.

On Tuesday, in the aftermath of the lamp, after work, I came home and went through my living room - removing and moving the incidental furniture around to open the room up even more. (It amazes me as I go minimalist how there always seems to be more room to go even farther in a minimalist direction.)

Once I'd cleaned the furniture out, I re-vacuumed the floor and made some minor rearrangements. I don't quite think the living room is in it's final configuration - but it is close to it, closer than it has been in a long time. Then, tonight, in the shadow of the new living room, I took the time to pack a couple of boxes of gently used clothing to donate tomorrow. I am constantly amazed that the process of moving toward a more minimalist life often moves in inspirational waves and that there always seems more stuff to go.