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@lightening does that mean you were naked before now in reply to lightening #

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I spent a good hour with my new ball driller (I will call him GB for this post) at Shellharbour Ten Pin Bowl going over what I wanted from this ball in comparison to the Track Black Gold Stomp. GB and I bowl in the same scratch league and he has seen the inconsistency in the ball reaction I have been getting on differing lane conditions, and often my inability to adapt, so it was good to know that we both knew what I needed. Interestingly enough we were after the same thing and GB was almost going to buy a Track Kinetic Pearl himself, he ended up with an Ebonite Playmaker.

As always, we started by taking the old ball and working out the details. I must say that the drill I have had for the Track Black Gold Stomp for what seems like an eternity has held up very well, a testament to the work of my previous coach and ball driller. Last week GB debuted a new weapon and I was fortunate enough to find span and finger sizes matched. I was amazed at how comfortable his equipment felt compared to my own. After contemplation I decided that I would try the same finger pitch and span as GB.

Finally after the drilling the first game was a shake down for the comfort of the drill and I also decided to try a few different things before tonights league. Almost everything worked apart from the last two frames where I missed the target and left nasty splits. It did not matter where I stood as long as I hit target it was in (or very near to) the pocket and obtained a good pin action. In the end I ended up with a 179 and confidence that the alterations to the drilling I am accustomed too did not impinge me in any way.

In league I started by standing 35 and shooting across 15 out to 5. The ball loaded up, cruised to about 45 feet and snapped in and would not quit. Ended the game with 7 strikes in a row and a 238. The bright yellow label on the ball stands out noticeably from the purple and black cover stock, and it was good to witness the revs on this ball loading up as it got down the lane. The snap was big and decisive, most of all it was consistent.

In the second game I was trying the same line. The first ball was just plain shitty and I dumped it in the gutter. The next 3 shots went brooky but carried all 10, so after 3 frames I had a spare and 2 strikes. At this point I persisted with the line rather than heed the pretty obvious warning to move. As a result I left quite a few nasty splits, including the 10th frame. Ended up with a 166 and losing the game by about 10 pins to my mum.

In the third game I woke up and moved to 30 and soothing across 10 out to 5. This more direct line returned the ball to the strike force it was in the first game. Ended up throwing a 5 bagger and a 213 game.

So I shot a 199 average for 4 games, my current highest league average is 184 so about 15 pins better. I am very pleased with that and now just have to get used to moving with the reaction, something I have never done well. The ball though has filled me with confidence and has assured me that it was indeed the correct decision to remain with the Track Legion.

I have now been using it for 24 hours and it has worked flawlessly. Thanks to the team behind the Twitter Updater for taking the time to diagnose, understand, and correct the issue.

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As such I have revised the schedule to produce one consolidated post per week.

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Columbia 300 Purple and Pink Jazz
Owner – Mum
Colour – Purple and Pink
Surface – Polished
Bowlingball.com Perfect Scale – 92.0
Comments – Mum bowls right-handed backup. This means she is aiming for the 1-2 pocket, commonly referred to as the brooklyn side. Mum has over 30 years experience and this her first ever reactive ball. As such I think she will experience a bit of a shock as it is a big step up from the plastic and urethane balls she is accustomed to. For Mum’s ball a gentle arc will be required, certainly not an aggressive layout.

Ebonite Clash Turquoise and Purple
Owner – Bobbie
Colour – Turquoise and Purple
Surface – Polished
Bowlingball.com Perfect Scale – 162.8
Comments – Bobbie bowls a conventional style. That is she comes from the right and goes for the traditional pocket for a right hander. Bobbie is just into her second year as a bowler and has managed to maintain a 120-130 average. Recently her game scores have improved and allowed her to attain a 215 game! Bobbie is now at the point where she is ready for a bit more oompf when the ball hits and to start developing a hook. Once again a nice arc that will not be over the top will be used.

Track Kinetic Pearl
Owner – Dean
Colour – Black and Purple
Surface – Polished
Bowlingball.com Perfect Scale – 199.9
Comments – The Track Kinetic Pearl will be my 5th reactive weapon and my second from Track. I have bowled other Track balls aswell and as yet have not found a dud. As previously stated it will become the first ball out of the bag and force the Grey Wolf into the shed. I will be looking for some length with this ball and a big backend.

Unfortunately we can’t get these balls drilled up until next Tuesday evening. Sure can not wait to give the Track Kinetic Pearl a rip and watch it go!

PS: Pictures to follow something screwy happened with them.

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Now at this stage the jury is out on the benefits of Twitter. As a friend recently put it Twitter is just the FaceBook status update. Essentially he is correct, however there are a few people on Twitter that I would like to keep in contact with. Hell, who knows others may pop up over time.

Taking his comment though I thought wouldn’t it be cool if I could push blog announcements to Twitter and FaceBook. This has been accomplished and works well using established WordPress Plugins (Twitter Tools and WordBook). So I can now announce to both Social Networks that I have published something to read.

I also decided to allow Twitter Tools to construct a daily and monthly blog entry of all tweets. This would then serve as a record of those actions on that site within my blog. Yes this is not necessarily a well structured post, but it is captured a snapshot of my activities. As it is a blog entry it is also announced on FaceBook, good stuff. This will also mean that lengthy times without a post will not occur as I am constantly on the Twitter doing stuff … at least until I get the final leg of the triangle in motion..

I then thought about completing the triangle. That is “FaceBook to WordPress” and “FaceBook to Twitter”. “FaceBook to WordPress” was easily accomplished by the PressThis plugin that interrogates my FaceBook status newsfeed. This is then placed in my sidebar. Brilliant, yes there is a bit of delay, but I can live with that. Heck, I can live with once every 24 hour updates from Twitter, so once every hour for FaceBook updates is brilliant.

So the final part of the triangle is “FaceBook to Twitter”. This is proving problematic as the only available FaceBook application (Twitter Updater) to perform this task seems to not be working for 50% of its user base since FaceBook updated it’s publisher and home pages to the new look. I am hopeful that the developers are working on this and that all should be well soon, however it is frustrating to say the least presently. Something that seems so simple is proving very difficult indeed.

PS: I have also seen that for some reason my Twitter account was receiving over 100 attempts for remote access. Whilst I am hesitant to blame the Twitter Updater it is hard to see what else could be the source of this bombardment.

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I also took the opportunity to review the plugins I had installed. I have removed several that we no longer of much use. I have though added the Sociable add-in to allow anyone that cares to share an article very easy access to do so. This replaced another less functional social bookmarking site.

As of a week or so ago I have jumped into using FaceBook quite heavily. I have as a result looked for and found a nice plugin that will update my Facebook whenever I publish an article. The plugin is called WordBook by Robert Tsai and is allowing me to update both sites very easily indeed. The update will appear as a post on my profile.

I also decided to join Twitter and have added a WordPress plugin to automatically send an update whenever a blog is posted. This plugin is called Twitter Tools and is written by Alex King. Again allowing me to perform two things with one click.

Anyway, thats it for now.

I am about to put my trusty Black Gold Stomp by Track into semi-retirement. That is, it will become my alternative strike ball. Whilst the Black Gold Stomp is still hitting like a truck it is nevertheless getting quite old. Looking through the records the ball was released in late 2000, about the time I recall purchasing mine. During the past 8 years the Black Gold Stomp has been the cornerstone of my arsenal. If it was not performing then I was not performing, truth be known, if it wasn’t performing it was because I was bowling poorly.

The Black Gold was the ball I used to represent Western Australia in the now defunct Walter De Veer tournament in 2001. A tournament where I was averaging very close to 200. In fact to qualify for the team I averaged 200+ after starting the qualification tournament with a couple of 120’s and being a mile behind. I have over the years learnt to trust that the ball will indeed come back and not be scared to throw it out there.

My biggest game with this ball remains a 290 practice game, though in recent times I have thrown a number of 230’s and a couple of 260’s. So why did I decide to upgrade?

The reason for the upgrade was that new equipment will always be better than old equipment. In this respect bowling is no different to a car. A new Commodore will be superior to an 8 year old Commodore (though I would argue an 8 year old Commodore is better than a new Falcon ). Anyways, the upgrade of the ball should see an improvement in my overall effectiveness. So what is the ball I am upgrading to?

For anyone that has seen my MSN or Facebook profiles of late would not be surprised to know that it is a Track Kinetic Pearl. This purple and black ball features an asymmetrical shuttle core covered in UMP Generation 2 Reactive resin. From all accounts it is a skid snap beast, which is exactly what I am after. I see as being the most suited to my bowling style, and in many ways looks like an amicable complement to the geriatric Stomp. I am quite excited to get this ball and have a roll at Shellharbour Bowl. Hopefully it will arrive early next week in time for a debut on Friday.

With the semi-retirement of the Track Black Gold Stomp I will be forced to banish my Ebonite Grey Wolf to the shed. The Grey Wolf was my second Ebonite ball and was a complement for the Ebonite Red Wolf (sitting in the shed). The Ebonite Grey Wolf was an under rated piece of equipment back in the day. The reason being that it required a very particular condition. Personally I loved the Ebonite Red Wolf, but the Ebonite Grey Wolf game me an option when it got too dry (as Melville Superbowl did) to use anything else.

The ancient red Ebonite Maxim that was second hand when I got it remains in the bag. I just can’t justify purchasing a plastic ball at this stage. If and when I do I will look for a Track Flaming T for a reasonable price. if I can’t find one at a reasonable price then I might go with a brand like Denver, yes cheap. But it is only a spare ball!

Here are some videos of the Kinetic Pearl.