Dave’s Good Stuff

I’ve been trying to find a recipe for years. I had it on a piece of old, torn, stained paper and somewhere in the many moves I’ve endured in the last 10 years, it’s disappeared. I just thought of it today, and thought I’d try to find it. The closest I’ve been able to come is this:

NO BAKE PEANUT BUTTER CEREAL BARS

1 c. powdered sugar
1 c. light corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
6 c. corn flakes
1 1/2 c. peanut butter

Melt sugar and corn syrup in large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add vanilla, cereal and peanut butter. Press into a 9×13 inch pan. Chill. Cut into bars.

That looks about right, but the quantities are off a bit. Problem is, I remember enough to know that what’s listed above *isn’t* right, but not enough to know what *is* right, if you follow me. Maybe the proportions are right, there’s just more of each ingredient… I do seem to remember 3 cups cereal, instead of 6. What I do know for sure is that there was *no* chocolate, and that it was just as good to substitute Rice Krispies for flakes.

Regardless, I’m posting this so that 1.) I’ll have it at my disposal indefinitely, at least in this potentially inaccurate form, and 2.) if it jogs the memory of anyone out there (yeah right), you can help me out.

Three of us, myself, Hafid and Dean have decided to play pool regularly at Dean’s house. We were just playing once a week, just trying to get back into the swing of it. But now that we’re back in said swing, we’ve decided to up the ante and play two or three times a week, at least. We figure we’ll play Monday, Wednesday and sometime on the weekend. There will probably be more than that, but that’s the minimum, with tonight being the start of our more extensive practice.

Practice, such as it is, really is nothing more than the three of us playing a very relaxed version of 14:1 Continuous, or Straight Pool. One will rack all 15 balls, give it his best 14:1 break, then shoot until he misses. We take turns shooting until we miss, and when the last ball is left, the Break Ball, we rack the 14 sunk balls and use that last ball to break it up… continue ad nauseum. The only full break (which is really a softer, minimal break, with only enough juice to get two balls into two rails and then back into the rack, while leaving the cue down at the other end of the table so as to leave your opponent with no shot) is at the beginning of the evening… after that, it’s full on continuous pool. Shoot at whatever you like, and just keep shooting until you miss. 14:1 is really a two person game, but there are three of us, so we improvise.

Tonight was especially nice for me. For the longest time, my record run was 15 balls. I just couldn’t get over that hump. I’d run a rack, but I couldn’t get that last ball in place to break up the 14 ball rack… so I was stuck at 15 balls in a row. Tonight I made 17. I got over the hump. :)

Tomorrow, we’re going back over for more.

I’ve been telling friends that it’s been since January 14th that I’ve played Quake 3 : Rocket Arena. That’s not entirely correct… I looked at the log/config files again, and it was actually February 23rd, at 9:29pm, 2002. So, it hasn’t been two months as I thought, but only about 3 weeks.

No matter, really. I don’t have any desire to play again. Too many children. They may have been good players, some better and some worse than I, and in person they may actually be honest, forthright and decent people. But online they are, as a whole, children. Spiteful, rude and unforgiving. Fucks, nearly to the last. It’s left sort of a bad taste in my mouth. I won’t go so far as to actually uninstall the game yet, but it may not be the first on the hard drive come my next reinstall…

I may have mentioned my love of billiards at some point. My bud with the brunswick table and I have been playing steady lately… once a week, and now moving up to two, maybe three times a week. I intend to play more than that, and get in good again with the blokes at the local pool hall. At one point, I knew them and was liked well enough they’d let me play for free. I want back there. More than that, though, I want to get back to my old speed.

I say "back" b/c I sorta quit playing regularly… sorta in that "most definitely, and without doubt" way. But, before I all but dropped it in favor of other pursuits, I was keeping personal statistics on my performance. I’d play a game called Equal Offense, where you rack the balls, break and shoot until you miss. How many balls you pocket before missing is your score. A full game is 10 rounds, with each round composed of 10 racks… or 100 racks total. That’s a lot of racking, breaking and shooting. Keeping my score on notebook paper at the pool hall, I come home and transfer them to an Excel spreadsheet that would calculate totals and averages. By doing this, I hoped to see my improvement (or lack thereof) over time. Unfortunately, those "other pursuits" got in the way before sufficient time had passed… and I only recorded two games.

Now, however, I’ve been able to knock out that second data-entry step. I’ve put that Equal Offense spreadsheet, as well one for keeping track of 14:1 Continuous stats onto my Visor. I’m very much looking forward to hitting the pool hall with my Visor to watch the scores rack up. I’m also looking forward to renewing old friendships and improving my table skills, but that all goes without saying. ;)

Waxing philosophical…

Pool is fun. A lot. I can think of few things that I really enjoy as much, and in quite the same way as pool. Been that way for as long as I can remember. Before I was tall enough to really shoot properly, anyway. There’s something Zen about it for me. The common phrase for "in the groove" or "in the zone" in billiards is "dead stroke." Whatever phrase you like, it’s that feeling you get when everything falls away and all that’s left is you and what you’re focusing on… the world vanishes, lights dim, sounds fade, your mind clears and everything important falls into sharp focus. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out and you do what you came to do with purpose and deadly calm determination. For me, what gets me there in a way more pure then anything else I’ve found is billiards. I got a foot in that zone last night again, and now I want more.

P.S. I’m sure I have one or two books on pool and billiards in my wish list… ;)

Actually… just kidding. It’s not here, it’s written up on Reckoning, one of my other sites. Find it all here. Just a teaser though…

Rorschach has his Black & White (and here), Section9 has his Blade of Darkness… well, now it’s my turn to return to an old favorite. However, where Black & White’s past may be, well… a bit more shady than black and white (oof), Blade’s a bit dull (Gawd, I’m real sorry) mine just never quite "ascended" above the beta phase (ouch… ok, I’m done now). I am, of course, talking about Ultima IX : Ascension.