Travel and Leisure

Pool is a lot of fun to learn and play. Just like any sport there are certain fundamentals and mechanics involved in order to play correctly. Here are a few tips to help beginners start off right when playing pool.

Alright you’ve decided to give pool a serious try. You played a couple games at a bar and thought, this is a lot of fun. You’ve decided you must have a table in your home, so you check out some pool tables for sale and find a nice inexpensive table to get started. You pick up all the necessary pool table accessories needed to get started and now you are ready to play. You rack up the balls, break them rather weakly, and then you take your first shot. You miss and miss badly. You take another shot, same result. Frustration starts to creep in and you take a third shot only to miscue and watch the cue ball scratch in the side pocket. Now you want to slam the cue stick on the ground. It’s O.K., trust me, pool is not an easy game. You just need to learn a few fundamentals, then practice a bit more and your pool game will improve. Let’s start with the foundation.

Your Stance is The Key

Pool requires balance, and your stance is where you start. First and foremost the stance should feel comfortable. If you are right handed then your right hand will hold the stick with the left hand being placed on the table to form the bridge. Your left leg will be closest to the table with your right leg behind it about a hips width apart from the left. Your right foot will roughly be in line with the shot. Each foot will be approximately at a 45 degree angle with the cue stick. Now your knees should be bent slightly in order to get a solid base for taking the shot. Just like how a weight lifter gets set when lifting weights. Now bend over at the hips and get your face and eyes looking down the cue stick at the cue ball in front of you. Don’t stand over the table or cue stick, get your upper body right over the cue stick so you can see the line of the shot.

The Bridge

Now that you have a balanced stance, it’s time to do the same for your most important tool, the cue stick. Place the hand you intend to use for the bridge flat on the table (if you are right handed it will be your left). Pull your fingers back towards the palm of your hand leaving your fingertips and palm resting firmly on the table. I then recommend spreading your fingers out a bit to form a more solid base on the table. Raise your thumb so it’s pointing skyward and place it next to your index finger. Place the cue stick on the inside of your thumb. It should rest there firmly and should slide back and forth with little or no resistance. A quick tip: If it feels like the cue stick is rubbing against the skin a bit, rub some chalk where it slides over and you no longer will have this feeling. Now you are ready to take the shot.

Taking The Shot

Aim at where you want to hit the object ball with the cue ball. Aim your cue stick at the place on the cue ball that will drive the cue ball toward the spot on the object ball you wish to hit. Take a few practice strokes first to make sure you have lined up the spot on the cue ball correctly. Take your time and follow through when hitting the cue ball. Don’t lift your body up until the cue ball has struck the object ball to ensure proper stroke and follow through. Repeat the process for your next shot.

It will definitely take a lot of practice to get better at pool, but if you start by doing these 3 things correctly, you will be starting on the right path to improve your pool game.

There have been water slides on cruise ships for many years but they were typically just an after thought. They were nothing to make a fuss over just something extra for the little kids to play on and the occasional drunk frat boy. Well times have changed and in a big way. The new mega ships now offer water slides, surf parks and even water coasters that might make even some land based parks jealous. Here are a few of the best new aqua parks the cruise lines have to offer.

Carnival’s Water Works Aqua Park
The Carnival Dream and her sister ships have built on the success of the Fantasy class water park upgrades performed over the past few years by building them bigger and better. The Dream offers side by side racing slides and they have expanded the main slide to be the self proclaimed longest corkscrew slide at sea. The younger kids get a splash zone and a set of smaller side by side racers too.

Norwegian Epic Aqua Park
No matter what you think of the outside of the new Norwegian Epic ship you have to be impressed with the “Epic Plunge” which is considered to be the only tube slide and largest bowl slide at sea. It is one of three slides on the Epic which are also surrounded by a children’s area with water sprayers, wading pools and a small slide. Amenities like this are helping NCL quickly climb up in the rankings for top ten cruise lines.

Disney’s AquaDuck
Leave it up to Disney to sprinkle a little fairy dust magic and come up with something that blows the rest of the competition out of the water. Disney has now introduced the AquaDuck on the new Disney Dream. The Aquaduck is the first water coaster at sea and takes guest on a 765 ft four deck plunge including a twist that has it going over the side of the ship with a clear view to the sea below.

Disney’s Nemo’s Reef
Disney hasn’t forgot about the little ones either on the new Dream ship. Nemo’s Reef is a 1500 square foot shaded splash park featuring various Nemo characters and mini sized water slides. The entire area is covered by a soft wet deck surface for safety as well.

If adventure slides aren’t your thing don’t worry there are plenty of comfy chairs surrounding all of the aqua parks so grab a chair and a Bahama Mama and watch the family take turns flying down the slides.

The first city that comes to mind when Australia is mentioned is Sydney. Traveling Sydney should be one of the priorities for those, who plan to visit Australia. Information on Sydney is one of the very important tips for traveling Australia.

Sydney is the oldest and largest city in Australia. For the inhabitants of Sydney (Sydneysiders), their city is the true capital of the country in many ways, except for the fact that it is not given that name. There is a lot to enjoy in this city: business, arts and culture.

Night life

Night life in Sydney is the best you can get in the whole of Oceania. There are a lot of restaurants that serve palatable dishes, bars and night clubs that always have a lot to offer for the visitor. There is always something to see in the evening in Sydney. There is live music, stand-up comedy, operas and films to enjoy. Apart from nightlife, there are a lot of physical attractions to be observed in Sydney.

Sydney Harbor

The first among them is the Sydney Harbor, which is described by many as the most beautiful harbour in the world. It has a very intricate coastal geography that blends into the nearby architecture of which the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge are major attractions.

The Harbor Bridge

Standing on the Harbor Bridge, also known as “the Coathanger”, you will be exposed to the beautiful scenery of the Harbor, with beautiful sails on the serene looking at the sea. A visit to Sydney cannot be complete without a visit to the Coathanger. For that matter many people say sightseeing in Sydney is limited to the harbor.

Darling Harbor

This was a former dockside area that has been made into a major tourist attraction. The whole area is covered with restaurants, shops and other recreation grounds. Some of the places worth mentioning here are Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Aquarium, National Maritime Museum, the Chinese Garden of Friendship and the IMAX Theater. You will always find a visit to Darling Harbor very fulfilling.

Sydney Opera House

This is one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in the world. It has survived the initial controversy that came up during its construction, to become a national icon. It houses a number of restaurants and bars, four auditoriums, which stage up to three thousand performances every year.

The Rocks

This is the birthplace of the city. It is made up of winding streets and sandstone cottages. It is home for the oldest pubs that you can find in Australia. In addition to the historical attraction, you will also see cafés, galleries, restaurants and souvenir shops that have turned the place into a tourist enclave.

One of the things that has been holding back Koh Phangan from increasing tourist numbers has been its lack of an airport. The reasons for this absence include the mountainous terrain on the island and the locals’ intransigence – they fear the island will develop too quickly and suffer environmental degradation as has happened in Koh Samui. The problem has partly been rectified by the addition of new travel options between Koh Phangan and Bangkok.

For the vast majority of visitors to Koh Samui, Koh Tao and Koh Phangan the first port of call is an international arrival at Bangkok airport. For those wanting the easiest route down to the islands in the South the best option still remains the Thai Airways flights from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport to Koh Samui airport. From there it is a 30-minute ferry journey over to Thong Sala in Koh Phangan. The problem is that the flights are over-priced at about 4,000 Thai Baht each way.

Now there are two new air routes opened up. The first is a Nok Air service between Bangkok and Nakhon Si Thammarat. The great thing about this route is that Nok Air has partnered up with the Lomprayah catamaran service to sell combined tickets. Now for 3,000 Thai Baht you can get from Bangkok to Thong Sala. The travel time is a bit longer than the Thai Airways route but the savings are substantial when you factor in the cost of a ferry to Koh Samui and a taxi journey.

The other new route is by Solar Air. They run a service between Bangkok and Chumphon. Again combined tickets can be bought to include bus and boat. The cost is about the same as the Nok Air deal. Both airlines fly out of Don Muang airport in Bangkok.

If you want to get to Koh Phangan even cheaper, then the options are either a bus/boat ticket or a train/boat ticket. From Bangkok it involves an overnight journey which is more comfortable on a sleeper on the train. The only problem with the train is that Suratthani train station is over an hour from the ferry port.

Despite the lack of an airport on Koh Phangan, the options for traveling to the paradise island have never been better.

I

One of the hippest trends of 2011 is longboarding. This sport, initially invented in the fifties as substitute for surfing, is gaining popularity quickly. The longboard seems especially popular with older people. The ability to use the longboard to cruise through the city makes them prefer it above the ‘normal’ skateboard.  However the longboard has a steeper learning curve than the skateboard. It will take a longer time to become fully accustomed to the somewhat longer board and greater speeds it can gain. The purpose of this article therefore is to give some practical tips to accelerate the learning process.

The learning process

In order to master the longboard, each longboarder has to follow a few steps. These steps will be described in the following. If you follow these steps in the given order, you will gain skill in longboarding more rapidly.

Step 1: Choosing the right discipline

It is very important to know what you want to do. Each longboard discipline will require other material. For example you will need another type of board with downhill racing than for the slalom. For downhill skateboarding you will need a speedboard. This speedboard is fully accustomed to the discipline of downhill races. It is designed to attain greater speeds and is built firmer. Decide which discipline you want to do and accustom your gear on the chosen discipline.

Step 2: Regular or goofy stance

This is an area where much newbies become confused. Are they regular or goofy? And what does this mean? These are respectively right foot in front and left foot in front. You can do this on intuition, just try both and see what feels best.

Step 3: Patience and mastery

Before you try out the big slopes, slow down. In your first weeks as a longboarder you will need to develop a feeling for the board on a flat surface. This may seem very boring to you after a day or two, but this is crucial in order to become truly great in longboarding. Rushing the process will get you nowhere.

Step 4: First slope

Then, after a few weeks, try out an easy slope. See how it feels and if you can pull it off neatly. If you can you are ready to ride the slopes and don’t have to worry anymore about the basic feeling for the board.

Step 5: Learn to slide

In the beginning, you can just jump off the board if you want to stop. However if you are gaining great speeds at downhill races, this can be quite dangerous. Therefore learn to slide before you hit the really big slopes. This is the most convenient way to slow down or stop.

Step 6: Progress

In order to keep developing your skills as a longboarder it is essential to keep challenging yourself. You don’t learn anything if you try the same slope every day. Therefore try a more different slope every time you are out there on the longboard.

More Information

If you want to know more about longboarding or became enthusiastic about this extreme sport, please have a look at longboard stores or longboards for sale. These articles contain some sources where you can buy your first longboard quite cheaply.

Kids have a fantastic way of opening up the world for adults, don’t they?  There is a purity and innocence in their way of thinking and being that just permeates everyone, at least it’s been my experience.  I’ve learned a lot from the process of watching children learn.  You probably can too.

About ten years ago I was playing Monopoly, one of my favorite business game for kids, with my cousin Emma, who is a very precocious eight year old girl.  There were four of us involved in the game, and we were having a lot of fun, but Emma–the least experienced player in a shark tank of a family–was soon falling behind.

Of course, we all wanted to Emma to stay in the game, so we made adjustments and loans and concessions to make sure that she was having fun, and she was.   When we decided to call the game, Emma said one of those that really stuck with me, and she had a profound impact without intent or even an awareness of it (which is what made it innocent).  Emma said, “I really like playing Monopoly, but the money wasn’t real, we can’t spend it now, what we do have is our family and love.”

Whoa!  Did Emma hit the nail on the head with that one or what?!  Even in the real world, money is illusory.  It’s often “in the bank,” which really means that it’s no more than a digital record.  It doesn’t count for anything in and of itself.

What counts is the people we “collect,” not the amount of money we have.  One can practically survive on good relationships alone.

Today, Emma is 18 years old and about to enter college.  She’s interested in how to become a lawyer.  She truly wants to help people, and she still has a pure heart (in my opinion at least).  I see her that way because of the mark she left on me almost ten years ago.  I never expected such a lesson in authenticity to come from playing a business game for kids.