In the spirit of Christmas I forgive Lou. I have said everything I want to say about him and his ugliness, lack of ethics and general evil character. I wish that he has a wonderful rest of his life. Should be die before I do then I will not rejoice. I will at that time post a tribute to a worthy opponent with whom I have been in a 20 year relationship. I would like to sincerely thank him for all the times he chose to hate and lie which provided a natural platform to promote objective aiming systems.
I have learned that when haters come around it allows for a vigorous discussion and presentation of the merits. I have said many times that Center to Edge Aiming and systematic aiming would have died for lack of interest among a few technical nerds without the hard work of people like Lou and Pat and a number of other trolls. Although they are infuriating the fact is that without their constant criticism and bullying those of us who use, teach and promote aiming systems wouldn't have examined and tested them to the degree that we have.
Now there are several good aiming systems out there. Hal Houle is remembered and his systems have spawned several of those named systems. In addition people have explored the genre and found great success. The whole point was to help others be better players and the haters kept the interest going. Yes it was difficult slogging through an endless list of assholery but in the end we won. There are thousands of people each year and growing who are benefiting from CTE and other objective aiming systems.
The name Stan Shuffett will be remembered long after the current group of haters are gone. Stan's work will be helping others long after he is gone while the words of the trolls will be as meaningless as forgotten as grains of dust swept away by the wind.
That's the legacy the trolls helped to build and among them Lou Figueroa is a legend. I personally extend my truly sincere thanks.
Anytime he wants to invoke my name, to ridicule me, to publicly bask in the victory over me, to get attention and attaboys is ok with me. I will gladly accept all voluntary mentions of myself, my brand, aiming systems and anything else I have decided to promote.
I build high quality cases. I use an aiming system when I play that keeps me in love with pool. I stand behind what I promote and have solid logical reasoning as well as physical proof to back up the effectiveness and practical qualities of those things.
So, although I am really a super nobody in the universal sense at least I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to influence a part of the industry and to be part of helping players enjoy this sport. As the saying goes, haters are motivators and I would like to say to Lou thank you for all the motivation.
It's been an emotional ride for sure. You're very very very good at what you do Lou. Going up against a world class public relations professional is "fraught with danger" as Grady Matthews used to say before someone was going to take a risky shot.
But it paid off. Looking back I realize that you giving me for free what others charge for, publicity, was definitely helpful to me. You made me realize that just because someone tells interesting stories it doesn't mean they are actually good people. But if that person will tell interesting stories about me then that can be advantageous. It wasn't calculated by me that I become an object of your bullying but when it happened I am glad that I had the wherewithal to recognize the benefit. And by providing the "natural" platform to insert my logo and website thousands of times you gave me an even greater gift. You gave me the opportunity to be 100% sincere about how I felt about you while at the same time promoting my brand. Turns out being really real resonates with a lot of people who buy cue cases and who are interested in becoming better players.
So thank you. But now that I have said everything and gotten to the point where we don't need more promotion I will simply answer your posts with thank you.
Test me. Say anything you want. Lie in any way you want to and I will say thank you. To be clear I might report you if you go too far but I won't bother rebutting those lies.
Have a wonderful life Lou. The very best to you and your wife. I forgive you for all that you said about me. I can't forgive you for all that you said about Stan and Hal and the many others you bullied over the years. But for me I am truly at peace with it at this point.
Merry Christmas, you are forgiven.
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