Los Angeles, moving house, and how I single-handedly eliminated my 8 ball team from tri-annuals 


The last couple of weeks have been more than a little eventful. 

LOS ANGELES:

I left for L.A. on the 29th. When I arrived, the heat caught my breath and never stopped until I left. We had a few days over 110ºF (43ºC) and every day was at least 100ºF. I had the opportunity to see friends who I've missed more than I ever thought I would and a few who I've since wondered why they were friends at all. I suppose that's just how it goes. While I was there, I found out that the production company I've been working for over the past 12 years has three pilots coming up. Fingers crossed, there! They also have expressed some serious interest in hiring me on as an editor--from all the way up here! Thank god for the internet. I also had some banking to do while I was in town and, out of the blue, was offered a $20,000 line of credit. Suckers! I also was D.P. (director of photography) and director for a sword demo a very good actor-friend of mine wanted to shoot. He rented some amazing gear for me to shoot with, and another very good friend of mine agreed to come and grip for us. We ended up shooting on the Mexican backlot at Brooks Institute in Ventura where, apparently, a lot of "Air America" was filmed. All-in-all, I have to say it was a pretty awesome experience. I'll post links to the demo when it's finished.

LEAVING LOS ANGELES:

Leaving L.A. wasn't as easy as I'd expected. I had planned to leave on Tuesday (a week after I'd arrived) but on Friday night, as I was about to leave to meet some friends, my car alarm started making a very odd pulsing sound which I couldn't shut off. I asked one of the friends I was supposed to meet if he wouldn't mind picking me up and when he got there, he suggested that I disconnect the battery thinking that the pulsing sound would probably drain it. Good idea! With it being a three day weekend, though, I couldn't have the alarm looked at until the following Tuesday. In the end, I had to replace the alarm and didn't leave until Wednesday. I also decided to have my stereo re-wired as it hadn't been properly installed the first time. 1,800 miles is a long drive with a screwed up stereo image. (Sorry--the musician in me.) As I pulled away, brand new alarm and freshly re-wired sound system, the stereo fell out of my dashboard, and I ended up spending another hour at the shop while it was mounted properly. Apparently, the bonehead who had botched the wiring had also not mounted the stereo in the dashboard so the installer, thinking this was intentional, left it the way it had been. By the time I got underway, it was rush hour.

THE DRIVE:

Having left so late (I didn't get on the road until 5:30), I only made it as far as Mesquite, Nevada which is about an hour past Las Vegas up I-15. (A total distance of about 380 miles.) I stayed at a casino and ended up playing blackjack until 3:30am. Yes, I'm a fool but at least I only lost $20. Obviously, I set off a little late the following day but was still determined to make up time. Believe it or not, I set off from Nevada at 1pm and made it through Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and all the way to Butte, Montana--five states in one day! For those of you who don't remember my sentiments about Butte, click here. During the night, I kept waking up to what I thought was the sound of some very large trucks bouncing up the highway. (I stayed in the same hotel as the last time, right next to I-15.) In the morning, I discovered that the noise was a mining crew blasting away at "the richest little hill on earth" (which I had previously dubbed "the ugliest little hill on earth"). As I was loading my car, there was another concussive blast followed by a plume of smoke, dirt and dust. Butte was barely passable in the snow, but this time, it's ugliness was absolutely glaring. I didn't even bother to have a pork chop sandwich.

The trip from Butte home was about 660 miles which, although a long trek, wasn't nearly as bad as the 750 miles I'd done the day before from Mesquite. I finally arrived home at 3am, safe, tired, and glad to be back. I was also thrilled to finally have my car again. God, what a car; I didn't realise how much I'd missed it. It's an absolute joy to drive... and now the stereo rocks!

POOL:

Oh, this was bad...

The 8 ball wildcard playoffs were on Saturday. I was still tired from my drive but itching to play nevertheless. In the first round, it came down to me to send us to the next round--we were tied 2-2 with only my match remaining. I'm ranked a four, my opponent a three, meaning that I had to win 3 games and she only had to win two. I absolutely trounced her the first match--she had only sunk one ball by the end. The next match came down to the eight ball. It was sitting on the top rail with the cue ball all the way at the other end of the table. I wanted to bank it the length of the table and gave it an almighty whack sending it into the wrong pocket. Oops! Still, it was only 1-1. The next game went well with me ending up needing one solid and the eight ball while she still had five balls on the table. Unfortunately, the balls were set up with a fine cut on my solid and the eight sitting at an angle right behind it. I cut the solid into the corner, ricocheting the cue into the eight and putting the eight into the side. Automatic loss. Game over. Match over. Go home. I'm still torturing myself about it. In my defence, though, we were at 2-0 before our two 6's choked and lost both of their matches putting me in the do-or-die position. Such is life.

The following day, Sunday, was the 9 ball wildcard playoffs. The first thing I should explain about my 9 ball team is that it was started by Jake, the captain of my 8 ball team, just to get us all playing 8 ball better. Where the 8 ball team went into the wildcard in a very solid second place, our 9 ball team was fifth out of only eight--not so good. Again, it came down to me to send us to the next round or home. Now, I need to explain the bizarre scoring system in the CPA/APA when it comes to 9 ball...

Matches are scored on a points system with a handicap. For instance, I'm a three in 9 ball. That means that I need to score 25 points to win a match. A four would need 31 points where a two would only need 19. The rankings go up to nine; a nine needs a whopping 75 points to win. 9 ball is played with, uh, nine balls. Pretty simple. Each ball counts as one point except for the 9 which counts for two--10 possible points on the table. You shoot the balls in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. However, after your cue makes contact with your object ball (whichever number you need to shoot next), anything goes: whatever you sink counts and then you keep on shooting the same number you were shooting before (unless that one went down in the process in which case, you now have to shoot the next in order). Okay... getting boring, I know, but there's more. At the end of each match, the teams are awarded points not based on the points scored during the match, but based on a 20-point-per-match system. (20-0, 19-1, 18-2, etc.) There are five matches per round equalling a total of 100 possible points. And here's the weird part... those points are figured out based on the loser's ranking and the number of points he or she scored. Got all that? Hopefully, it won't be that important.

In the previous match (the fourth match), one of our 6's played a 4 and got absolutely obliterated leaving us with a score of 35-45. (We had the 35.) The fact that the match count was 2-2 didn't matter at all. In fact, what this meant was that I couldn't just win my match, I had to hold my opponent below a certain number of points in order to get a 16-4 spread or better (giving us 51 points or higher). I was playing a 2, normally a walk in the park, but remember, I had to keep his points down--I had to dominate. Let me just say at this point that I friggin' hate 9 ball to start with!

Well, I killed him--he only managed to sink six balls in the entire match--and got a score of 18-2 for our team giving us a final score of 53-47 and advancing us to the next round. The match-clincher was a shot on the 3 ball which was sitting frozen against the rail--impossible to sink. I put a lot of bottom right on the cue ball and bounced it off the 3 ball into the 5 ball which was sitting over the corner pocket about nine inches away, sinking it and winning the match. Damned smooth if I say so myself. After that, we all played pretty solidly and, after winning the next two rounds, we're advancing to the local finals called the "tri-annuals" (appropriately because they happen three times a year). If we do well there, it's on to provincial finals and then, assuming we do well again, finals in Vegas! A long way to go, but I feel like I redeemed myself after the 8 ball disaster the night before. So strange, though, with our 8 ball team having been so strong through the entire season and our 9 ball team basically being 16 weeks of suck-ass. The tri-annuals are held in October, and you can be sure I'll keep you posted about that.

MOVING:

The day after the 9 ball wildcard, I was packing up our van and moving us out of my in-laws' house. Some friends of my wife's family were leaving for a seven month trip to the U.S. and were looking for house-sitters. How perfect is that, eh? They'll be back for the month of December, but for now, we sort of have our own place complete with pictures of people I don't know covering the walls and little porcelain knick-knacks in wall cases next to collectable spoons. It's a bizarre feeling living in someone else's house. They're very sporty; that much I know--medals and trophies litter the place. They could do with some upgrades, though. There are fixtures, appliances, and assorted bits and pieces I haven't seen in at least 30 years like an 8-track alarm clock, tupperware salt and pepper shakers, and a microwave with a dial . Still, you can't beat the deal: $400 a month to cover utilities, and that's it! I just hope the microwave doesn't sterilise me. I'm considering a lead apron.

So all-in-all, the last couple of weeks have been great. There's promise of work, a $20,000 line of credit to play with, I got to see friends and hang out with my mum quite a bit (my dad and brother were out of town almost my entire stay), and I got my car back and moved into a new place. My studio's still at my in-laws' so if I get any work, I'll be commuting an entire block down the alley. Should be fun in the snow. I'm also quite fired up again after my trip to L.A. to make my video podcast sit-com series, "Due North"--as far as I know, a first on the internet. I'll keep everyone posted... you can count on it! 

Posted: Thu - September 14, 2006 at 01:12 AM          

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