Cold and Hot...

Well, the weather has been cold for days. Right now at 10pm, its 16 degrees and dropping. It snows a little most nights and blows or melts away during the afternoons. Lots of ice to watch out for when walking or driving.

Pool playing has been hot. All of my practice is working out well. I have been using these little pocket reducing things that force you to only hit the middle of the pockets, as well as techniques in concentration and focus. The result is that I now have better cue ball control than I have ever had. This is a very good thing... Out of the 9 games I had this week in leagues, I won 7 and the other two were not my fault. My 9-ball league is over now and we ended up in 2nd place as a team and I am not sure where I placed personally yet. On my 8-ball league, we ended up in 1st place and I think I placed 3rd, but again, the stats are not in yet.

We did go to the amateur boxing event last week I wrote about. The tickets said it started at 6:30. We got there about 6:25 and it didn't start until about 7:45. Then, it started with the smaller sized boxers, so it was pretty underwhelming all around. After intermission, we left and checked out some Twin Falls 'night life'. We went to Woodys, this local bar, and ended up seeing The Crafty Bastards, a local band. They weren't that bad, but played way too fast for us. There were a number of Dell folks that Pam knew there. All in all, it was a pretty 'exciting' night for us in Da Ho...

TAM-E Award

Woooo-hoooo!!!

The TAM team is proud to announce this week's TAM-E winner: PAM KEITHLEY

Pam assisted a fellow technician by proactively calling a customer and resolving their issue.

We will present Pam with her "unique" trophy and 30 minute pass off the phone tomorrow. Be sure and stop by Pam's desk and congratulate her and admire her trophy.


Here's the customer letter referenced above:

Pamela,

I would love to tell you manager about the great experience I had/having with the gold level help. I believe you have distinguished yourself above and beyond due to the fact that you overheard a conversation and the trouble your team member was having; took it upon yourself to call ME back; and not only offered to help but did in fact fix a major problem that was above level 1 support.

Have him/her review all the problems that you solved and it had better be a big feather in your cap because your just great and a pleasure to work with.

THANKS again

Mike McBride

Ho Wall of Fame...

Pam is now officially on the Dell Wall of Fame. They did a photo shoot and put together a great poster of her. She is doing great and is getting proper recognition for her achievements. Hopefully, it will also turn into more $$$.

I made a great Veal Picatta dinner the other night for us. I got this email from The Food Network and it all turned out great. We had it with some of Pam's leftover homemade pasta. Good stuff.

Pool went well this week. All of my practice has produced good results. I had one table run in 8-ball and won 8 out of 11 games this week in league play. I fell back into shooting quickly and not 'playing my game' during the first 9-ball games last night against novice players - something I must keep away from doing.

Its been cold again lately at night and unseasonably warm during the day. This morning, I was going to check out the fishing spots, but quickly changed my mind when I got outside and it was very cold and windy. Maybe, I will get to it this weekend.

Tomorrow night, Boyd gave us some tickets to a boxing tournament. We are going to check it out - a new experience here in Da Ho...

Kicking Butt and Taking Names...

This has been an intense pool league week. Besides my usual Tuesday and Thursday leagues, I sub'ed for Storm's Wednesday 8-ball league and also on Wednesday, we had a make-up 9-ball match from around Christmas time, both going on at the same time.

After my very poor performances of late, chronicled herein, I started practicing and studying with some new books and videos which have really helped my game. I have learned a number of new shots, that I was not aware how to make, in my 40 years of experience, from the new books and videos. I have also stated doing a lot more yoga and meditation which has taken my focus and concentration to a new level and directly augmented the technical developments I have been doing. I am playing very well and impressing the locals. I am in the top 4 players in all the leagues I play in, even after the month or so of very poor play.

The end result is that I am playing much better that I have in a many years, if ever, and I only see it getting better and better as time goes on. This week out of a total of 21 games I played in all the leagues, I won 18 of them - and the ones I lost were not my fault. I also did table runs twice and had both 8 and 9 ball on the break games, winning them.

I have learned that I cannot shoot 'play around' or 'not serious' shots, where I am not concentrating and 'in game'. When I do play in that mode, my skills reduce to that level. This is a fact I have not been aware of in the past. I just would go through cycles of going to hell and really not knowing why. When you really think about it, that logic works in any technical/skill area you really are trying to develop skill in.

I am back on the path of working towards being as good as I can be - Again, Once and for all...

The weather has been as it has been for months. Snow to rain to freezing cold and then do it all again.

Pam is going well at Dell and in general. She is making some killer pasta dishes with her new pasta maker and we have been making some great dinners for ourselves and friends. Live is good here in DaHo...