As I was telling y’all a few days ago I’ve taken up bowling. A friend of mine has given me some advice so I thought I’d put it here where I can find it.

if you want to raise your scores, simply get more spares.

For spares remember the rule of 3.

Find your "strike shot" and note which board you start on (big toe of dominant foot) and which board the ball crosses out by the arrows.

Note: "Strike Shot" is the shot that hits the pocket. This shot doesn’t always result in "10 in the pit".

For this explanation we will "say" that the head pin (#1) is your primary target when shooting a full rack. To shoot spares simply move your feet 3 the opposite direction of the new target pin.

meaning… If your target pin becomes the 3 pin, you move 3 boards left. 6 pin, 6 boards left. 10 pin, 9 boards left. — 2 pin, 3 boards right. 4 pin, 6 boards right. 7 pin, 7 boards right.

One of these 7 pins 1,2,3,4,6,7,10 will always be your target… (example.. shooting a 7-8 mini split, the 4 pin is your target pin even though it is off the deck).

Good luck and high scores.

ps…The 10 (or 7 pin for lefties) is a lot easier than it’s made out to be as well. The easiest method of shooting this pin is to stand on the dot closest to the opposite gutter and shoot over the middle arrow. Then adjust a board at a time until you are "spot on".

oh, and one more thing. If you haven’t yet, try to develop a bit of a hook. In bowling, angle of entry is everything. To shoot a hook simply imagine that you are sliding a suit case down the alley and make a fist as you let go of the ball. This will cause the side rotation necessary for at least a small arc.

Thanks, Greg.

A friend of mine has a website called AlaskanLeprechaun.com where he’s selling his stained glass creations. He’s having trouble getting indexed by Google so if some of you are so inclined a link to him to give him a boost would be appreciated.

My office started a bowling team to bowl in the local industrial bowling league. I haven’t bowled to speak of since I was in my early twenties but this sounded like an activity that would get me out of a rut I’ve been in lately so I joined. League play starts tonight.

Since I’ve been away from bowling for so long I figured a trip to the bowling alley at lunch wouldn’t be a bad idea. So off I went, yesterday, to the bowling alley at lunchtime and bowled three games. It was both fun and frustrating.

The frustration stemmed from the fact that the heels of the rental bowling shoes would stop me dead when I dropped my heels on delivery. Since I hadn’t quite let go of the ball at that moment it made it very difficult to control the release of the ball. I’ve had this problem the last couple of times I’ve gone bowling but the time frame that has encompassed has been about five years. The problem seemed worse this time.

After bowling three games I went to the counter and talked to the fellow there about my problem. He told me that the synthetic finish they used on the lanes these days is tackier than the finish used on the lanes back when I use to bowl frequently. He suggested I talk to the man in the pro shop about remedies. Talking to the guy in the pro shop I learned that the problem was exacerbated by the fact that one of the guys who cleaned the shoes went a little over board on cleaning the heels with alcohol.

I now own a pair of bowling shoes. I guess I’ll find out tonight if this helps.

Okay, I really can’t say that I’m surprised but Brian Nichols is pleading innocent. This man alledgedly overpowered a Fulton County Georgia Sheriff’s Deputy in the courthouse, somehow got her gun, put her in the hospital, shot and killed the judge who was presiding over his trial and his court reporter, shot and killed a Fulton County Georgia Sheriff’s deputy outside of the courthouse, hijacked a car and escaped. Later on he alledgedly shot and killed a US Customs agent while trying to get another car and held a woman hostage in Gwinnett County overnight before she persuaded him to let her loose and surrender to authorities.

This man murdered four people and seriously injured a fifth, mostly in front of witnesses, and he pleads innocent. I’m really anxious to see what his defense is.

There is a lake in our neighborhood that was created by damming up a little stream that combines with another little stream about a half mile away to form the Yellow River. A neighbor of mine and I have talked about taking our canoes down that little stream and see how far we could go in a day. Richard Grove is taking that musing a little farther.

The Yellow River is not much of a river, especially at it’s head waters. Growing up on the Tennessee River I sort of laughed at the idea of calling this little stream a river when I moved here. However, it does get larger as it meanders through Gwinnett County and it leads to other rivers that eventually lead to the ocean. That’s the end that Grove sees the river as his means to. Planning a thirtyish day trip he intends to finally float out into the ocean in his little kayak. Maybe I need to put my canoe into that stream and see how far I make it.

There are some things about my generation that I’m not a bit proud of. Doonesbury succinctly portrays one of them today

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There’s this website out there that wants me to sign a petition to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. Now back prior to the Reagan years the FCC required all newscast to be fair and balanced. They required any show that gave one political view point to be balanced with the same amount of time given to the opposite viewpoint. During the years of the Fairness Doctrine talk radio could not exist in the form it exists today.

Now some of you may think that doing away with talk radio as it exists today would be a good thing and you might be right but that isn’t the point I want to make. I just want y’all to think about this; do you think that website would offer me the same amount of space to put up a petition to keep the Fairness Doctrine away from broadcast TV and radio? Do you think they should be made to?

Okay, I’m a sucker for these quizes. However, this one had me disagreeing with both answers they gave for about half the questions. Here’s my results.

I had a problem with the second question:

2. Immigration policies

• Should be less strict. Immigrants enhance this country.
• Should be more strict. Too many people enter illegally.

My true answer would have been “Should be less strict. Too many people enter the country illegally.”

I also had a problem with number 3:

3. Gay marriage

• Should be legal and given the same rights as heterosexual marriage.
• Should not be legal. Marriage is between a man and a woman.

Marriage is between a man and a woman. That’s the definition. I have no problem with homosexual couples having a similar, or even exactly identical relationship recognized by the state. Let’s not be changing definitions.

Now look at number 7:

7. Carrying a gun is:

• Taking responsibility for one’s own defense, and admirable
• Dangerous and sketchy

To me, both of those statements could be true, depending on who is carrying the gun. Someone who has gone through the training, the first answer is true. For someone who has never been instructed in firearm safety the second is true.

Now on to number 16:

16. Abortion should be…

• Completely legal and available
• Restricted, discouraged, or illegal

Completely legal and available for a woman? Yes.

Restricted? Yes. An abortion should be restricted to being performed by a licensed doctor, preferably an OB/GYN. An abortion should be restricted to medical emergencies, such as a threat to the mother’s health, at some point not far past the second trimester. Also I don’t think minors should be allowed to just walk into a clinic and get an abortion. They can’t just walk into a tattoo parlor and get a tattoo can they?

Discouraged? Come on now. How many of you would encourage anyone to get an abortion? Generally speaking abortions should be discouraged.

Illegal? It should be illegal for an unlicensed person to perform abortions. Certain procedures possibly should be illegal.

Anyway, you see what I’m getting at. None of the above questions were clear cut enough to use the given answers.

Maybe I need to come up with my own poll.

Back in March I told y’all the story about my day in court. Well, I got a letter from my attorney yesterday. My new court date is June 17^th. Hopefully this will conclude this business and everyone can get on with their lives.

There is one thing that I need to try to understand before then. In court, insurance is not suppose to be mentioned because it is irrelevent to liability or damages. However, Ms Simmons statements to me about her insurance are relevent in that they go to establish her credibility, or lack of credibility. My lawyer says that even in that context insurance can’t be brought up. Since this is not a jury trial I don’t understand why it can’t be brought into question.

If she was sure that she was not at fault why would she lie to me, twice, about the state of her insurance? If she was sure that my son was at fault why didn’t she submit a claim to my insurance company? I think these questions are relevent. Maybe I’ll ask another attorney about this.

PimaAirMuseum/DSCN0588.jpg

I added a new plugin that allows me to post pictures from my gallery a little easier than before. I just wanted to see if it works and I’ve always liked this airplane.

It looks like Atlanta is going out to find itself and spend $15 million in the process of doing so. Atlanta is a very diverse town so it’s not going to be easy to find a way to succinctly convey that diversity in a single brand and I’m not sure that it’s as necessary of a thing to do as the story would lead us to believe.

Oh well, it’s only money.

Both of my sons were born this month. My oldest turned 21 this past thursday while my youngest turns 16 on the 26. We are taking them to Cancun at the end of the month. In the meantime my yard is blossoming out with shrubs growing and weeds appearing and I’ve got a dozen things I need to get done at work.

I’m already tired.

Hopefully I can get a little rest tonight so I can at least ride my bicycle some after work tomorrow.

I’ve got to travel back home to Chattanooga after lunch today for a viewing at a funeral home this afternoon and to be a pallbearer in a funeral tomorrow. This is such a tragedy on more levels than I feel comfortable talking about on this weblog but I do want to address one thing, some people can’t be trusted to live in society.

Andrea Justice was the sister of my brother’s wife. She was a hard working single mother of Brianna. Brianna was a bright, inquisitive young girl who was a delight to know. Brianna loved animals and couldn’t bear to think of any animal going hungry or being abused. In all the time I was around Brianna I never saw here misbehave or act disrespectful to anyone.

A little over a year ago Andrea met and married Tony Pope. About two months ago Andrea gave birth to their son, Christian. Now Tony had been in jail for killing someone but he served a short sentence and was out on parole when he and Andrea married. Andrea’s family figured it must have been something like an accident with him serving such a short sentence. He seemed like a nice enough fellow to the family so I don’t think a whole lot was asked or thought about it at the time.

However, Tony had not been imprisoned for accidently killing someone. Tony had beat his girlfriend over the head with a frying pan. He claimed she came after him with a knife during his trial but he was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He served five years and was paroled.

Monday night, May 2, 2005, Andrea informed Tony she and the children were moving out and that she wanted a divorce. Tony responded by beating Andrea over the head with a hammer, killing her, strangling Brianna and kicking her in the chest, killing her. He then got little Christian out of his crib and began battering him against the wall until he was dead.

Tony was picked up by the police as he went into work the following morning. His parole was immediately revoked and he will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. At least we can only hope that he never graces society with his presence again.

Anyone can be pushed to a breaking point to commit violence on another person. I’m a firm believer in that. I’m a firm believer in forgiveness, rehabilitation and second chances but when the person committing the violence is controlling or just downright mean I can’t accept the risk they pose to the public of allowing them any benefit of doubt. These people just don’t change often enough to think that any of them can change. None of them should ever be allowed back out into the general population after they have been convicted.

People like Tony are all around us. If you know of someone who is battering their loved ones you have two choices, wait until they kill or get them off the streets.

Real Live Preacher talks to his daughter, or maybe I should say listens to his daughter at Starbucks. His story is interesting and has some good advice for being a listener when your children talk to you.

I’ve always been more than willing to give anyone who shows sufficient remorse over something a second chance. Recent events have me rethinking how far I’m willing to extend second chances. Putting myself at risk with someone by offering a second chance is one thing putting anyone else at risk is something completely else. I’ve always understood that but maybe my criteria for trusting someone not to endanger anyone else.

I’m adding “control freaks with a history of violence” to my list of people that I will never trust to not hurt anyone else. Yeah, depending on the case I’ll still interact with them when it’s only my own safety that I’m concerned about but I’ll never allow a second chance to anyone on this list that could jeopordize the health and safety of anyone else.

This extends to my opinion of granting parole to people in jail and also in sentencing people who’s crimes involved exerting control over another person. Having a need to be in control of one’s own life is one thing but if one is the type to need to control other’s then that person I have no compassion for. I’ll give them no second chance either. I don’t believe they can be cured.