Well, that was anticlimactic
Six months ago I would have been dreading moving up to a 4 in 9-ball. But I've been really looking forward to it since this session started, cause I know I'm ready to move up now. It makes me sad that I won't win quite as much, but I want to feel like I'm making progress in my pool-playing skills. I've been a 3 since last September, and I want to be at least a 5 by the time I graduate. So last night, I show up for 9-ball and I've made the jump to 4. Yay!
Well, yay, that is, until I play the most amazing freaking 1 I've ever seen. 1 my foot. Translated into non-APA-playerese, a 1 should be a really sucky player who misses ball-in-hand (put the ball wherever you want) shots about half the time. A 1 has to get to 14 balls in order to win. Since I'd moved up to a 4, I had to get to 31. Beating a one should be hard for most anyone but a 2 because you have so little leeway -- if they get a few decent runs, the game is over. But this was freaking rediculous. Half of her 14 points came from banking balls in. When the game was over, I had 13 balls total. That should NOT happen. So I was kind of pissed, partly because her skill level was SO innacurate, but mostly because that really quickly killed my excitement about moving up to a four. I wasn't necessarily expecting to win, but I was hoping for a good, close game. AND I'll probably be a three again next week. :(
The rest of yesterday was great, though. Dr. Adams came to talk at Auburn, which was cool all on its own and made yesterday nearly on par with Christmas as far as my excitement level goes, but the coolest thing was that I got invited to go out to eat with him before the speech with some of the reps from the College Republicans. When the girl who arranged the speech talked to him on the phone earlier this week, she found out I've been talking to him over email for the past few years, so she invited me to come along with them. He was actually the only person at the dinner that I knew beforehand, but I had a terrific time and met some cool new people. I got to tell fun stories about what it's like to be one of the only conservatives in the English department. The speech was great and well-attended, too. No goofy professors showed up and made fools of themselves like they've done at his speeches elsewhere (like the one who stood up and threw a hissy fit and then started singing "I'm not listening, I'm not listening!"). There were professors there, but they behaved. One of them was from English (ok, two, but one is actually a conservative), and I believe I'm now outed as a conservative, assuming he hadn't figured it out by my lack of joining in with the laughter when he shares the make-fun-of-conservatives type stuff he finds on the internet when we're in the same computer lab. He has actually expressed dismay at not appearing on the list of professors on noindoctrination.org. I expected a show from him, but received none. I guess there wasn't a whole lot to get angry about and disagree with. The speech was definitely aimed at an audience of conservatives, but the message of it was about the dangers of speech codes, particularly the tendency for them to be unevenly enforced. It would have been hard to argue with anything he said. Dr. Adams is one of my heroes and I want to be like him someday, but I see myself being quieter and more subversive in my methods.
Oh, and my mood isn't really quixotic, but I just noticed that as an option and thought the picture that went with it was funny. I'd say my mood is pretty good aside from my daily sinus headache.
Well, yay, that is, until I play the most amazing freaking 1 I've ever seen. 1 my foot. Translated into non-APA-playerese, a 1 should be a really sucky player who misses ball-in-hand (put the ball wherever you want) shots about half the time. A 1 has to get to 14 balls in order to win. Since I'd moved up to a 4, I had to get to 31. Beating a one should be hard for most anyone but a 2 because you have so little leeway -- if they get a few decent runs, the game is over. But this was freaking rediculous. Half of her 14 points came from banking balls in. When the game was over, I had 13 balls total. That should NOT happen. So I was kind of pissed, partly because her skill level was SO innacurate, but mostly because that really quickly killed my excitement about moving up to a four. I wasn't necessarily expecting to win, but I was hoping for a good, close game. AND I'll probably be a three again next week. :(
The rest of yesterday was great, though. Dr. Adams came to talk at Auburn, which was cool all on its own and made yesterday nearly on par with Christmas as far as my excitement level goes, but the coolest thing was that I got invited to go out to eat with him before the speech with some of the reps from the College Republicans. When the girl who arranged the speech talked to him on the phone earlier this week, she found out I've been talking to him over email for the past few years, so she invited me to come along with them. He was actually the only person at the dinner that I knew beforehand, but I had a terrific time and met some cool new people. I got to tell fun stories about what it's like to be one of the only conservatives in the English department. The speech was great and well-attended, too. No goofy professors showed up and made fools of themselves like they've done at his speeches elsewhere (like the one who stood up and threw a hissy fit and then started singing "I'm not listening, I'm not listening!"). There were professors there, but they behaved. One of them was from English (ok, two, but one is actually a conservative), and I believe I'm now outed as a conservative, assuming he hadn't figured it out by my lack of joining in with the laughter when he shares the make-fun-of-conservatives type stuff he finds on the internet when we're in the same computer lab. He has actually expressed dismay at not appearing on the list of professors on noindoctrination.org. I expected a show from him, but received none. I guess there wasn't a whole lot to get angry about and disagree with. The speech was definitely aimed at an audience of conservatives, but the message of it was about the dangers of speech codes, particularly the tendency for them to be unevenly enforced. It would have been hard to argue with anything he said. Dr. Adams is one of my heroes and I want to be like him someday, but I see myself being quieter and more subversive in my methods.
Oh, and my mood isn't really quixotic, but I just noticed that as an option and thought the picture that went with it was funny. I'd say my mood is pretty good aside from my daily sinus headache.