Braving Billiard Table in a Month
Written on February 1, 2010 – 3:02 am | by kolp8bnnh
Tags: billiards
Written on February 1, 2010 – 3:02 am | by kolp8bnnh
The Old Billiards in a Day
Written on February 1, 2010 – 2:41 am | by kolp8bnnh
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Tags: billiard
How to Risk Shooting Pool in One Day
Written on February 1, 2010 – 2:36 am | by kolp8bnnh
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Tags: pool tables
What a Fun Billiards
Written on January 26, 2010 – 12:37 am | by kolp8bnnh
Becky and Dave asked if we'd watch Gretchen while they went out to dinner with Manu, one of Dave's work colleagues. Of course, we said yes. When I got home from work, I was surprised there was nothing being cooked. So I mentioned to Peggy that we were watching Gretchen tonight and that she'd want to eat when she got here. Peggy promptly said “it's Friday, and we go out to eat on Friday.” Oops… I thought that was why Becky and Dave were bringing Gretchen over… Soooo, off we went to Chief's with Gretchen…
Doesn't Gretchen look like a little angel here? Well, she was… She was soooo well behaved, we may have to do this again…
Youda Marina is a wonderful simulation and time management game all rolled into one. It offers you sun and fun each time you play! Be creative with your exotic harbor and have fun managing it is everyday problems- just the way you want to!
You will be the harbor master, responsible for keeping all your Marina visitors happy. And happy visitors mean lots of income as they pay their harbor fees and visit your bars and restaurants. The more income you earn, the more facilities you can build. Make it possible for your visitors to stay longer by letting them stay in your hotels or holiday resorts. You can even and let them enjoy a day in one of your amusement parks, or join amazing tours. You can even start your own diving school or game fishing excursions!
Be careful! More visitors and facilities means more time and attention is needed. You will have to stay in control of what happens in and around your harbor, and in case of an emergency, your rescue teams are there to take care of the situation! You really do not want your visitors to be sick or your bars and resorts to be burnt down, do you?
Your goal is to either focus on creating an efficient working harbor or produce the most beautiful marina in the world! Small goals need to be achieved in order to reach your major final goal. Are you in control or do you want to do whatever you like and be creative? You can choose what ever you want!
Here are some key features of “Youda Marina”:
· 4 different maps
· Lots of buildings and facilities to construct
· All kinds of ships and boats
· Challenging milestones
· Creativity with your marina design
· Amazing graphics
· Reggae music for the real tropical vibe
· Breaking waves and sea-gull sound effects
· Many hours of great fun
· A fantastic tropical adventure!
Requirements:
· Internet Explorer
Limitations:
· Limited time game play
Homepage
Download
(27.40 MB)
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Tags: pool
What a Billiards in a Week
Written on January 26, 2010 – 12:36 am | by kolp8bnnh
Tales from the Hall – Part I
The game of pool has been around for a long time. Actually, pool is a later derivation of billiards. In billiards, there are no pockets and the rules are different, and it is played with only three balls, two white and one red.
In researching the game, the earliest reference I can find lists two “pool rooms” in Salisbury in 1899. One was owned by Percy Brewington on Division St. and the other one was owned by Charles M. Mitchell and was located on Dock St.(which is now Market St.). By 1907, Mitchell’s was the only one still in operation.
Salisbury must have tried to enhance their image by 1940. The two establishments are listed under “Billiard Parlors”. One was the Arcade Billiard Parlor in the Arcade Theater Building. This was where WMDT is now located. It was operated by L. F. Stevens. The other was Moody’s Billiards Rooms on W. Main St. run by Moody Williams.
The 1950 phone book has only one listing under Billiard Parlors. It was the Billiard Center on E. Main St.
The first “pool hall” I can remember was Salisbury Pocket Billiards on Baptist St. Many a young man of my generation fondly recalls his memories of that place. The building is comprised of law offices now, and I’m not even sure the people who work there know what went on in there some 40-odd years ago.
It was truly a mecca for the local young men. There were legal laws such as no one was admitted under 16, a law that was fairly relaxed by the mid-sixties. And then there was the unwritten law that barred women, so much so that if a wife wanted to contact her husband or boyfriend, she waited in the car outside until the next customer arrived. She would then ask him if he would tell her husband or boyfriend that she wanted to see him. The message was always delivered and, with much grumbling, the husband or boyfriend would go see what she wanted.
Since this was the era before drugs, I never saw any illicit activity in the pool hall. There was never any drinking in the pool hall with the exception of Friday afternoon. A few of the older men would knock off early Friday and bring a bottle to the pool room. They never offered any to the younger patrons.
My mother always told someone if they called at home for me that I was down at the “smoky ol’ pool parlor”. Compared to today, it was relatively tame.
There were never any fights. Smoking was permitted and you just put the butt out on the floor. At the end of the day it was cleaned up by Squirrel or Harlan, the two mainstays in those days. They also had 5 gallon cans placed strategically for the “chewers”. These were nasty and the ultimate occurrence was if the cue ball managed to find its way in one of them – yuck! Even big, hardy men didn’t like retrieving that cue ball.
All of the tables were 4½ by 9 feet in size and all of the balls were 3 1/8 inches in diameter. When the popular “bar table” appeared on the scene, the size was reduced to 4 x 8 and the cue ball was increased in size to 3¼ inches. This was to allow the cue ball to follow a different path under the table and be able to be returned to play.
NEXT WEEK – The Pool Hall – Part II
The best models uploaded to 3DVIA.com during the week of Saturday, January 02 through Friday, January 08, 2010 are highlighted here. This will start the continuation of the Top 10 posts again on a weekly schedule, usually on Thursdays. The weeks that I missed will be honored in a Top 20 – 054 and it will go live as soon as I get it done.
The 2009 Top 10 recap post that I promised is also in the works and will appear out of nowhere to surprise everyone (even me).
Easy links to the previous Top 10 lists: 001 – 002 – 003 – 004 – 005 – 006 – 007 – 008 – 009 – 010 – 011 – 012 – 013 – 014 – 015 – 016 – 017 -018 – 019 – 020 – 021 – 022 – 023 – 024 – 025 – 026 – 027 – 028 – 029 – 030 – 031 – 032 – 033 – 034 – 035 – 036 – 037 – 038 – 039 – 040 – 041 – 042 – 043 – 044 – 045 – 046 – 047 – 048 – 049 – 050 – 051 – 052 – 053 – 054 (not done yet)
The Top 10:
Thanks Parth, for helping us get off to a great start in the New Year with Welcome 2010!!!!. XQH_XXX used 3DVIA Shape. [Parth is from India]
Good advice can come from many places, including the model Finely tuned Relationship!!! by abu_roadking. Abu used 3DVIA Shape to help illustrate his allegorical story. [Abu is from India]
Topmod-test by dvmorris is a wonderfully complex geometrical ball that is just plain great fun to explore. Dave used a STL BINARY Generator [Dave is from the US]
This Plate of Boiled Eggs by trigram_VMX makes me hungry every time I see it! I love Deviled Eggs, so this model, created with 3DVIA Shape, just has to be a winner. [trigram_VMX is from India]
This beautifully designed and modeled building, Gould First File, was uploaded in 3DS format by Mike_D, but was modeled by David Gould. Have fun exploring the interior and picking out your seat for the presentation!
Base was uploaded by solidworks2009prem, although the actual model is a standard SolidWorks model. solidworks2009prem was kind and honest enough to tell me once he saw it here – Thanks!! It shows how even industrial products can look sculptural. Good design can be practical AND sculptural. SolidWorks 2010 was used to do the modeling. [solidworks2009prem is from China]
Enjoy the article? Then be sure to check out The Pool Shark. They have tons of great info on pool tables and just pool in general.
Tags: shooting pool
An Old Pool Tables
Written on January 26, 2010 – 12:33 am | by kolp8bnnh
The Tap ‘n’ Tin. I was 17, thirsty to fit in, hungry to be different, eager to act like a grown up. I had dyed hair, the piercings had started. The pub was under railway bridges, heavy bouncers manned the doors. By day it’s a pub, relaxed, industrial silver, pool tables, free sandwiches, different rooms and levels throughout, big benches, great jukebox sound-system, a cool backyard in the shadow of an old, dark church. By night it transforms into a rock dive bar, loud music pumps, the crowd throb and push to DJs and live bands, hot, busy, fun. Fashion was a big thing, divided between the Goths, the Rockers, the Cool crowd and the wannabees. We went there to get drunk, to play pool, to hang out with friends and, later in the evening on the top floor, to dance wildly to great songs. The beer wasn’t good. One cask of Abbot Ale on gravity was always vinegary and stale; two casks of 8% cider which only the hardcore braved (vinegary and stale); the usual array of kegged lagers; a wall of spirits to get drunk quick; bottles of Bud and, thankfully, Newcastle Brown Ale. So there began an education in ale. Heavy bottle in hand, drinking it down, logo facing outwards to market myself as different, feeling super-cool. There was also Newcy Brown Girl. Tight jeans, funky hair, a piercing by her lip, tattoo on her back, dark eyes, one of those walks. She drank it from the bottle as she floated around, lots of eyes on her. And (this is the best bit) she had a belt made with the yellow-and-blue-starred caps, like notches or battle scars. She made us want to drink it more. And we did. Around we walked with our bottles, bumping in to people, feeling their sweat against us, our eyes stinging from the thick smoke, our ears banging from the music, our heads giddy and light from everything… So many great memories… Of playing pool, of dancing to the best songs, of going there on Christmas Eve and getting wasted, of going to a beer festival with two mates and my dad and then to the pub after, of afternoons spent there when we shouldn’t have, of pints of lager and cigarettes, of seeing people and things that opened my mind (it was there that I saw two girls kissing for the first time; it was there that I saw two guys kissing for the first time). That’s where we grew up, my friends and I, drinking bottles of Newcy Brown, trying to fit in, playing pool and dancing like we didn’t care.
Sort of. It works if you’ll permit me to extend the Bacon number concept beyond actors and movies. This would seem fair, since Lincoln died before movies were made. Anyway, it’s my blog.
So Kevin Bacon was in “Flatliners” with Julia Roberts, who was in “Ocean’s 11″ with George Clooney, giving Clooney a Bacon number of 2. And several years ago, Clooney’s dad, Nick Clooney, wrote the following in his column in the now-defunct Cincinnati Post (hat tip to my mom — only a librarian could have found this!). It’s rather long, but well worth the read:
The old forget their importance to the children
I wonder if old people have any real idea of the effect they have on children.
Old. Yes, I know it’s a relative term. When I reached my current age plateau, I recalled vividly a movie I saw when I was about 12. I don’t remember the name of it, but William Powell was going through a midlife crisis and fell in love with a beautiful mermaid played by Ann Blyth in a blonde wig. She would appear magically in his swimming pool (only in California!) each night, and he would talk to this fantasy girl about his hopes and disappointments; things he didn’t think he could talk to his wife about anymore.
At the time, my only disappointment was that Ann Blyth had a fish tail where her pretty legs should be, but even then I was impressed by a phrase Mr. Powell used to describe his age; so impressed that I remember it still.
“50. Ah 50. The old age of youth, and the youth of old age.”
Right on target.
Teen-agers to whom I speak at high schools assume I covered the signing of the Constitution in person; on the other hand, a 70-year-old couple we had over for dinner a few weeks back called Nina and me “kids.” I kind of liked that.
But the point I’m laboriously getting to is that older people have a significant effect on the minds and hearts of children, and they should be aware of it and treat it as a serious responsibility. We’ve had the time and experience to learn what was true and what was false in life, and we ought to be careful about what we pass on.
The man or woman who was bequeathed a prejudice, has found it in a lifetime of human contact to be false but then passes it on to children anyway is a damned fool.
Older people always fascinated me, because they knew so much and had seen so much. I would listen for hours to elderly members of the family as they spun tales of the wonders of days gone by; hiding in the corner, I hoped they wouldn’t see me and banish me to bed.
The long summer twilight would come to life as they recounted stories of robbers hiding in the rafters of covered bridges, of horse-drawn trolleys, of wading across the Ohio in August, of bootleggers’ gun battles on Market Street, of William Jennings Bryan making a stump speech for 10,000 people with no microphone, of trains stopping to take children to school and bringing them home, of major surgical operations performed on kitchen tables, of the wonder of the first telephone, the first automobile, the first bathtub, the first electric light, the first radio.
How could I not be mesmerized by the stories of a group of people whose lives literally bridged the era of the horse and buggy to the era of the splitting of the atom. No other lifespan ever did—or ever will—see so much.
It’s the connection to other times that makes the older person so important; a sense of the continuum of family, community, nation, world.
It was the spring of 1941, in some ways our last spring; the spring before a sleepy harbor in the Hawaiian Islands changed everything forever. I was six, and I was listening to the radio because my sisters Rosemary, 12, and Betty, 9, were singing with a school choir on some program, and we were very excited.
But also on that program, an old, old man was interviewed. He had been an 18-year-old Union soldier in November of 1863. He went to the Gettysburg cemetery to hear the president speak at the place where the critical battle of the Civil War had been fought 4 ½ months before. He described the weather, the crowd, the speech of the famous orator Edward Everett.
I was transported to that day and time by the quavering voice of that old man. He spoke of Lincoln, how the president looked. He told us he stood no more than 10 yards away during the most famous American speech ever uttered. The interviewer, pressed for time, tried to hurry the old man along.
“Listen, son, this is important,” he said: “People have it all wrong about how Lincoln ended his speech. They’ve got the words right, but they say it wrong, and it changed the meaning. He didn’t say ‘of the people, by the people, for the people.’
“He said ‘of the people, by the people, for the people.’”
He was right; that was important; and every time I’ve had occasion to repeat those words publicly since then—and it’s been often—I’ve done it right.
Because the 54-year-old Abraham Lincoln connected with the 18-year-old soldier who was a 96-year-old man connected with the 6-year-old me.
And now I with you.
And with son George, thereby giving Abe Lincoln a Bacon number of 5.
Q.E.D.
* * * * *
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Tags: billiard
A Stronger Shooting Pool in a Day
Written on January 15, 2010 – 8:56 pm | by kolp8bnnh
Wounded Vets Compete in the First Warrior Games
Wounded Vets to Participate in First Warrior Games
By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2010 – Some 200 wounded active duty members and military veterans will compete in the inaugural Warrior Games May 10-14 in Colorado Springs, Colo., Defense Department officials announced today.
The U.S. Olympic Committee will host the games, and events will include shooting, swimming, archery, track, discus, shot put, cycling, sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball, Army Brig. Gen. Gary Cheek, commander of the U.S. Army Warrior Transition Command, said at a Pentagon news conference.
Athletes will be recruited from each of the military services, including the Coast Guard, through an independent selection processes. Many already participate in some kind of training with Paralympics coordinators, but the competitors also will train with Olympic and Paralympics coaches at the Olympic training facilities in Colorado for about a month before the actual competitions, Cheek said.
The competition is open to military members and veterans with bodily injuries as well as mental wounds of war, such as post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury.
The Army will be represented by 100 soldiers chosen out of a pool of almost 9,000 wounded warriors. The Marine Corps will send 50 competitors, while the Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard will send 25 each, Cheeks said.
“The value of sports and athletic competition and the fact that you can get great satisfaction from what you do is really what we're after,” he said. “And we're really looking for this opportunity to germinate this program in May and have it get bigger and stronger.”
The goal isn't necessarily to determine the best athletes, but rather to maximize wounded veterans' abilities, and to show them their true potential through competitive sports, he explained.
“While we've made enormous progress in all the military services in our warrior care, … it's not enough,” the general said. “And what we have to do with our servicemembers is inspire them to reach for and achieve a rich and productive future — to defeat their illness or injury to maximize their abilities and know that they can have a rich and fulfilling life beyond what has happened to them in service to their nation.”
The general added that an Olympic-style event will challenge those servicemembers to prove to themselves that they have abilities within them that they can carry over into everyday life.
“Our hope is that, by doing this every year, we can extend that down into all of our warrior care programs … of increasing adaptive sports and physical activity and defeating these wounds,” he said. “From that, it becomes part of the life of that servicemember, and it will expand into their everyday life and all the things that they do.”
Adaptive sports rehabilitation has proven time and again to have a positive, long-lasting effect on wounded warriors, said Charlie Huebner, Paralympics chief for the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Huebner noted that adaptive sports have positive effects on wounded veterans in their continued education, family life and in the work force, though that's not the Paralympics' goal.
“The outcomes that we see every day utilizing physical activity as part of the rehab process — higher self-esteem, lower stress levels, lower secondary medical conditions … young men and women pursuing higher education at a higher level, young men and women being employed at a higher level — those are outcomes we see every day with the population we serve,” he said.
Since 2003, the Paralympics have worked in partnership with the Veterans Affairs Department, providing adaptive sports therapy to veterans. And through the annual Warrior Games, Huebner said, he hopes to expand their standing commitment to veterans and servicemembers.
“Our armed forces are the best in the world,” he said. “And our athletes want to be the best in the world at the Olympic and Paralympics games. That is a core part of what we do at the U.S. Olympic Committee.”
Related Sites:
U.S. Army Warrior Transition Command
U.S. Paralympics Committee
Wounded Vets Compete in the First Warrior Games
Wounded Vets to Participate in First Warrior Games
By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2010 – Some 200 wounded active duty members and military veterans will compete in the inaugural Warrior Games May 10-14 in Colorado Springs, Colo., Defense Department officials announced today.
The U.S. Olympic Committee will host the games, and events will include shooting, swimming, archery, track, discus, shot put, cycling, sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball, Army Brig. Gen. Gary Cheek, commander of the U.S. Army Warrior Transition Command, said at a Pentagon news conference.
Athletes will be recruited from each of the military services, including the Coast Guard, through an independent selection processes. Many already participate in some kind of training with Paralympics coordinators, but the competitors also will train with Olympic and Paralympics coaches at the Olympic training facilities in Colorado for about a month before the actual competitions, Cheek said.
The competition is open to military members and veterans with bodily injuries as well as mental wounds of war, such as post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury.
The Army will be represented by 100 soldiers chosen out of a pool of almost 9,000 wounded warriors. The Marine Corps will send 50 competitors, while the Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard will send 25 each, Cheeks said.
“The value of sports and athletic competition and the fact that you can get great satisfaction from what you do is really what we're after,” he said. “And we're really looking for this opportunity to germinate this program in May and have it get bigger and stronger.”
The goal isn't necessarily to determine the best athletes, but rather to maximize wounded veterans' abilities, and to show them their true potential through competitive sports, he explained.
“While we've made enormous progress in all the military services in our warrior care, … it's not enough,” the general said. “And what we have to do with our servicemembers is inspire them to reach for and achieve a rich and productive future — to defeat their illness or injury to maximize their abilities and know that they can have a rich and fulfilling life beyond what has happened to them in service to their nation.”
The general added that an Olympic-style event will challenge those servicemembers to prove to themselves that they have abilities within them that they can carry over into everyday life.
“Our hope is that, by doing this every year, we can extend that down into all of our warrior care programs … of increasing adaptive sports and physical activity and defeating these wounds,” he said. “From that, it becomes part of the life of that servicemember, and it will expand into their everyday life and all the things that they do.”
Adaptive sports rehabilitation has proven time and again to have a positive, long-lasting effect on wounded warriors, said Charlie Huebner, Paralympics chief for the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Huebner noted that adaptive sports have positive effects on wounded veterans in their continued education, family life and in the work force, though that's not the Paralympics' goal.
“The outcomes that we see every day utilizing physical activity as part of the rehab process — higher self-esteem, lower stress levels, lower secondary medical conditions … young men and women pursuing higher education at a higher level, young men and women being employed at a higher level — those are outcomes we see every day with the population we serve,” he said.
Since 2003, the Paralympics have worked in partnership with the Veterans Affairs Department, providing adaptive sports therapy to veterans. And through the annual Warrior Games, Huebner said, he hopes to expand their standing commitment to veterans and servicemembers.
“Our armed forces are the best in the world,” he said. “And our athletes want to be the best in the world at the Olympic and Paralympics games. That is a core part of what we do at the U.S. Olympic Committee.”
Related Sites:
U.S. Army Warrior Transition Command
U.S. Paralympics Committee
Tags: billiard