A Little Vac'ay and Some Site Feedback

Hey everyone, I am here in sunny Riverside, California, spending some time with my in-laws, recuperating from the WPBA San Diego Classic. I felt great at this event but I had some pool-fortune giveneth and some pool-fortune takeneth-ed away. With a bit of luck I emerged victorious in a well-played hill-hill match in the first round only to end up on the other side of that luck in another well-played hill-hill match on the B-side. Just one of those opportunities <...gritting teeth...> to pay more attention to the positives (the quality of my play and valuable lessons learned) and less attention to the results <...bile rising in throat>.

In other news, it's great to know that there are folks out there reading my sporadic musings, even if 75% of them are related to me.

Here is an e-mail I received recently from my friend Bill*:

"When I was a boy, I somehow, and purely accidentally ended up with two t-shirts that had cartoon [tigers] on them. One weekend where I visited [my cousin], again purely coincidentally, I brought both of them and wore them. The [family] became convinced that I was into [tiger] t-shirts. So they bought me some. Then, since I had a bunch of them, I wore them, and then other people observed that I was "into [tiger] t-shirts" and so they bought me more. Eventually, virtually every t-shirt I owned had [tigers] on it. Seriously. It turns out that there are a lot of [tiger] t-shirts out there, and eventually I had an army of relatives who would see any [tiger] t-shirt and think "Hey, doesn't little [Bill] like to wear these things? I think I'll buy it for him!"

Eventually, the idea that I liked [tiger] t-shirts spread and morphed into the idea that I like all-things-[tiger]. So people would buy me [tiger] figurines, [tiger] drinking glasses, [tiger] stuffed animals, etc. This perception that I was into [tigers] survived well into college, where a lady friend of mine once sent me a beautiful glass [tiger] sculpture from Spain, carefully packaged and shipped. To this day, looking around the house there are probably 5 or 10 vestiges of my supposed [tiger]-fancy that are still lying around. My step-family still gets me [tiger] calendars for Christmas. I guess what I'm saying is, be careful about accidentally giving people the wrong idea about your shirt preferences. It can quickly spiral out of your control.

-[Bill]"


* all names and animals have been changed to protect the family involved

-moo

The Dreaded White-Board

I present to you the source of my motivation (and sometimes pain) : My white-board.

About six months ago, I began to feel like I needed more job satisfaction at the end of each day. I needed some sense that I was accomplishing something concrete as opposed to just having a vague feeling of "getting better".

I started setting pool, fitness and mental-training goals for myself in two-month increments. I attempt to learn new skills or refine existing skills during this time by a choosing a set number of appropriate exercises (e.g. pool drills, running, relaxation exercises) I want to accomplish.

Each night, I check off everything that I did that day on the white-board. It is very satisfying to my obsessive-compulsive brain, and is concrete proof of how much work I am doing. (Not included in the checklist are my other daily activities like "Watch Dr. Phil" and "Drink Jagermeister".)

To avoid the emotional roller-coaster of basing my worth as a player on my most recent tournament results, I try to schedule my deadlines for a week or two after a big event. This ensures that my sense of satisfaction depends on my continuing hard work and not on one performance.

At the end of the two months, I reward myself, usually at the mall, based on how hard I worked and how many of my goals I completed.

Unfortunately, I have always been a procrastinator (hem, hem.. notice how often I update my blog) and am usually behind in my own made-up world of pool goals. I try set my goals a little higher than I can comfortably achieve, because I know that even if I fall a little short, I have still accomplished more than if I had set easier goals.

So, of course I am behind this month. Time to start multi-tasking by jogging in place at the table and meditating between shots. Drinking Jagermeister while I watch Dr. Phil. I am brilliant.


Smugly self-satisfied,

LIZ

Stay Tuned

There is nothing I hate more than the audacity of someone who makes a big deal about having a blog and then doesn't update the thing.

Err...Um...

Sorry for the delay, I am still working on my next entry. It will be one where I actually talk about pool and don't just hide behind silly pictures of myself.

Full of Self-Loathing in Forest Hills,

LIZ