The Cheetah

Cheetah

Length: 35 feet A cheetah may look harmless, but this speedster has a dangerous side. So does this pattern - with a fast scoring pace and play near the gutter, there's no room for error.

Description: Cheetah measures 35 feet in length and is the shortest of the five patterns. Sometimes used on lane surfaces that are well worn, it tries to maximize the area on the lane with less wear, which is usually extemely close to the gutter. Because of this, players tend to migrate toward those spots to take advantage of the more pristine surface areas. The cheetah is exciting for its ability to allow players to make "risk-reward" decisions based on playing near the gutter. The scoring pace is normally medium to high for this pattern.

I started bowling in a PBA Experience league designed to give house bowlers a chance to bowl on PBA lane conditions. The Cheetah is the first pattern we tried this last Sunday and we will bowl it again this Sunday but I am *cough* unable to bowl *cough* because of a prior engagement *cough* poker tournament *cough*.

I read the information sheet on the pattern and they recommended that you play as far outside as you could get as the middle was heavy with oil. Yeah. Right. I couldn't get my ball far enough out there. I kept coming in light and leaving headpin splits. Eff that.

I bowled a stellar 156 the first game and was not the low man on my team. D'oh. Somehow we managed to win that game. Towards the end of the first game I decided a straighter shot was my weapon of choice.

The second game I was able to pick up my spares and run some strikes together for a 200+ game but I proceeded to fall apart again the last game. I couldn't pick up a spare for anything. I finished with a lovely 145.

The miracle is that we managed to win all our games. Luckily the other team struggled as much as we did. Unfortunately, this is supposed to the be easiest of the patterns. Oh joy.

Tonight we bowled on the regular house pattern. I decided to go back to my Blade for a while. I seem to be able to do more with it than I can with my NV. I just had both balls de-oiled and resurfaced. They both look amazing and are performing well but the Blade really gets going for me more than the NV right now.

I've switched to using the NV for my spare ball and the Blade for my strike ball when I had been doing the reverse. I bowled 235, 194 and 215 tonight for a 644 series. That's the best night I have had in a long time. I think I'll stick with that for a while.

---

Poker Railing

We all do it. Most days it's like watching paint dry unless the player tells you his hole cards.

Virge once let me watch his desktop with some video conferencing software that his employer used but it wasn't the greatest clarity and there was a horrible lag.

Today he turned me on to Mikogo. This is really slick. It's free and easy to set up. Register for your account and install the software. Once the software is installed you start a conference and it gives you the number. Give the number out to whoever wants to watch your desktop. They don't have to have an account just the conference number.

The best part is that you can select how much or little of your desktop you want them to see. You can also let them take control if you want. It's much more exciting to watch/rail/sweat poker when you can see all the action.

I have been walking my mother through a lot of computer related stuff lately and, frankly, I've come close to killing her. It's a good thing she's a continent away. I'm having her install this on her computer so that I can control her desktop and show her how to use her computer and the software on it. There's nothing like the visual of seeing someone else do it for you. Hopefully she'll be able to function on her own real soon.

Give it a whirl. Indulge your inner voyeur. It's fun to see other people's desktops. Where are you hiding the pron?