Two Entertaiments

I got tired, bone weary really, of COVID news so I went looking for anything vastly different. Found two:

1. Cycle Around Japan - a series about a guy bicycling around Japan, visiting farmers and artisans and shopkeepers along the way.  He is followed by a cameraman on motorbike.  Lots of beautiful shots of the open road, lots of interesting local culture, lots of interesting stories.  Of course, it helps that the cyclist speaks fluent Japanese.  Reminds me a bit of The Kindnesses Diaries -- people everywhere are so kind and open.  
   
   
2. 3D Pool - downloaded an app that allows you to play pool on an iPad.  Had something similar years ago on my old IBM PC.  As a very bad pool player, this simulation is close enough to a real table to keep me entertained.  I'm tired of solitaire and Scrabble.
   

I have dropped dropped the 8 four or five times.  I just dropped three balls in one shot.  I'm getting pretty good at compound shots.  I must be freaking amazing.

Wish I had a better cue though.

Here, use this cue. It's similar (has floating points in the forearm).
When I sold my cues (all to one guy), this is the only one I kept.




Fucking quarantine. Makes me really regret selling the old house and pool table.

I'm impressed with the simulation.  The physics feel and look right.  The sound effects of the cue hitting the cue ball, and the other balls hitting each other, vary according to how hard they're hit.  The sound of the balls dropping into the pockets sounds exactly like a leather pocket table (no ball returns under the table!). No two breaks have been identical (so far as I can remember). The balls all reflect a double fluorescent bulb fixture above the table, with six incandescents surrounding it.

I don't know if you can see it in the pictures above, but the company's logo is very subtly imprinted into the tabletop.

You can add spin to the cue, although I'm such a duffer so I wouldn't know how to use this.

The only weird(?) thing is the cue has red spots on it, I guess so you can see how it's rolling or spinning.  Never seen a cue in real life so-marked.  Is that as weird as I think?

Growing up two of my friends had tables in their basements.  I used to love to shoot with them, although I never played enough to get better than terrible.  Always sorta wanted a table of my own.  Never could afford the space or money.

I *do* kinda miss seeing a female opponent leaning over the table to make a shot, in a loose shirt with no bra.

NoCoPilot wrote:

The only weird(?) thing is the cue has red spots on it, I guess so you can see how it's rolling or spinning.  Never seen a cue in real life so-marked.  Is that as weird as I think?

I assume you mean cue ball, not cue stick (a term that has fallen out of favor with the younger players). They started putting red spots on the cue ball for the enhancement of television games. Some people use them at home (they scream "amateur.") I hate the damn things, even on television. Also for television, they changed the color of (typically) the four ball and the seven ball, and sometimes (but less common) the thirteen and/or fourteen ball.

NoCoPilot wrote:

I *do* kinda miss seeing a female opponent leaning over the table to make a shot, in a loose shirt with no bra.

There are  things I miss about the game as well:

Perhaps Howard you can explain the different game options offered.

• 8-Ball
  
  
• 9-Ball
  
  
• UK 8-Ball
  
  
• Snooker

Here is a pretty good article describing many different "Cue Sports" (billiards games). But it is still just a few out of scores of games.

I don't know if you can see this, but in sinking the 8-ball to end a game, it jumped the rail and sits suspended in the air off the end of the table.  Not quite sure how to get it . You can rotate the table and it just sits there, hanging in air, about a foot from the table.