The "GD's Got Something to Brag About" thread
 

Yes, this is entirely tacky and egotistical...but I don't care.

I am once again a prize winning billiards champion!

This time, I won an individual tournament, rather than just placing with my team. Granted, I was in the "B" side (the "A" side was the top 18 players in our league, by average. The "B" side the bottom), but still, I won 4 best 2 out of 3 matches, and only lost 1 game the whole time (I won 7 games in a row, dropped the second game of the finals, then squeaked out the last one). The finals was actually against my teammate/coworker.

I think I have 2 things to thank for my unprecedented shooting. First, believe it or not, my back. It wasn't hurting, but I knew that if I got lazy and didn't pay attention to it, it would probably get pretty fatigued. So that forced me to be very conscious of my body position, forced me to bend my knees to get over all my shots and stay down instead of bouncing up. My failure to keep tabs on such things normally causes a lot of my usual suckitude. It made a big difference.

Secondly, my iPod. No hearing the horrible music the bar/club plays. No hearing the condescending wench running the swing dancing class. No hearing certain other players and their idiot friends at the other 5 tables yelling every time they make a shot. It was awesome, I was totally focused.

And best of all, I got to give myself a soundtrack. For the first match, I listened to The Pyschadelic Furs (self titled album). A little downbeat and moody, a great intro. Having won that match, I moved on to Psapp (Tiger, My Friend...and I just noticed the Ps connection, heh). A little happy and celebratory, definitely picking the energy up. Okay, so I won that match, which guaranteed that I would at least win a cue stick, the next match was the semifinals, time for some serious music...Kasabian. That got me going and I blew through that match easily. So on to the finals, which called for the appropriately awesome music. Enter Diesel Boy's Project Human, one of my favorite drumb and bass albums. That carried me through that tough final match, and on to my $200 first place prize! *doin' the happy dance*

Congrats!

That's awesome GD. Kudos.

:snap:

Congrats!
:)

8-ball or 9-ball?

For five years I played at least an hour of pool pretty much every weekday and many days much more than that. But I haven't touched a cue in about 20 months so I imagine I once again suck.

Unrelated but weird. To the best of my ability to recall before last night I had never heard of the Pyschadelic Furs and now I've seen them mentioned twice in less than 12 hours.

Congratulations! You can take your winnings and invest in more soundtracks to keep winning.

It was 8-ball, which surprises me even more. The league I'm in alternates seasons between 8-ball and 9-ball. If I were to have made a prediction, I would have bet on my winning 9-ball before I ever won 8-ball. Our 9-ball matches are handicapped in a way that really helps those of us who suck. 8-ball we play straight up.

You've never heard of the Psychedelic Furs? I assume you'd heard Pretty in Pink and just never knew the artist?

Congratulations!

By the way, congratulations as well. In all that time playing I never one any of the significant tournaments we had, it's hard to do.

You have to remember, I don't listen to music and that really is no exaggeration. I work at home, alone, all day and do so in silence. In the car I listen to NPR and baseball games. The last music I purchased was "Suicide is Painless" in 2004 because I needed to hear one of the lyrics for something and iTunes was convenient. I haven't purchased a CD for myself since the soundtrack to Moulin Rouge and I don't think I've ever listened to it other than the day I bought it.

About the only time I intentionally listen to music is when I need to block out distracting noises. So I have an iPod loaded up with random CDs Lani owns for when I work down at the library but I don't actually listen to it.

I hear music incidentally so I wouldn't be surprised if I've heard "Pretty in Pink" but I don't recognize it by title and have no idea who the Pyschadelic Furs are (and if it is related to the movie by the same name I haven't seen that either).

GRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!