Learning Pool Playing

It's a beautiful summer play day in İstanbul

The fun glop called “outrageous ooze” is what scientists call a non-Newtonian fluid -- a liquid that hardens when pressure is applied to it, making it both a solid and a liquid. Think of it as homemade quicksand! It is a recipe that is easy to make and, although rather messy to play with, easy to clean up. The recipe is as follows:

Mix two parts cornstarch (mısır nışastası) to one part water. Stop mixing when the mixture becomes so stiff that you can “break” the liquid by stirring it -- the cornstarch should look like wet clay.

When you pick it up in your hands, you can make a solid ball, but the minute you stop manipulating the mixture, outrageous ooze starts to melt through your fingers. Some children like to put small, waterproof items, like plastic toy figurines into the mix to try to find the partially buried treasures. Other children like to pretend that they are cooking and spoon out monster hands into containers of different sizes and shapes.

Because the mixture is both a solid and a liquid, it can be fun to bounce a ball on it or slap its surface. Scientists have experimented with the material by filling a pool with cornstarch and water and having people take turns running on it.

Outrageous ooze is a glorious tactile and visual sensory treat, and clean-up is a breeze. Water easily washes outrageous ooze away, or if your child spills it on the rug, let it dry and vacuum it up later.

For children who are learning to read or spell, consider hiding plastic letter magnets in the outrageous ooze mix. Children can retrieve the letters and spend hours of fun mixing and matching letters to spell words. Small toys of different colors or shapes could be hidden with the goal of having children sort them into categories.

I remember playing with colored dough as a child; it was lots of fun making animals and play food at my grandmother's kitchen table. I found three recipes for making play dough -- two that require cooking the dough, and one recipe that does not.

Articles 20VN | Pool Playing Tips | billiard tips | billiards ...

Pocket billiards can be a difficult sport to master. There are literally hundreds of pool playing tips out there, and countless articles have been written on the subject. This pool playing tips article takes a different approach to billiards. We will cover three general pool playing tips that, if followed, will help you improve your billiard game exponentially. If you focus on precision, patience, and practice, you will start pocketing more balls, and winning billiard games more often.

Precision is the backbone of most pool playing tips. It is an integral part of your stance, grip, aim, stroke, and follow through. The key to being precise is to take your time. Position yourself so that you are comfortable. This will allow you to relax and focus on precision. Think logically about your shot, and assess it from all points. Think of the cue as an extension of your arm. Since we are all very precise with our own limbs, imagining your cue as a part of one will subconsciously help you to be more precise. I know that all of this sounds incredibly vague, by try thinking about precision when you are at a table next, and see how much more focused you will be. From this alone you'll likely be pocketing more balls than normal.

Patience is extremely important in billiards, and is likely one of the most important pool playing tips you'll ever receive. We have all seen professional billiard players get visibly frustrated and lose their patience. Their game usually goes downhill from there. When we are impatient, the body tenses up and becomes more rigid. This will have a negative effect on your shot. When you become impatient and tense, you begin making decisions with haste and fail to properly think through your shots. Patience not only affects your game, but it also affects your practice routine. Because of the precise nature of billiards, certain shots need to be practices over and over. All too often up and coming players give up too soon and lose their patience.

This brings us to the third pool playing tip; practice. Not much needs to be said on this one, as everyone know that practice makes perfect. There are a few notes about practice that can help make it more effective. Practice 50% of the time at a table on your own. This will give you uninterrupted table time, and you will be able to try shots over and over as practice. The other 50% of the time should be spent playing casually with other players. The key piece of information to take away here is that you should always try to play with someone who is considerably better than you. You'll be able to learn from this person, ask them questions, and observe them.

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