Have cell phone. Will travel.

Another amusing bit from last night

vis@livingpaper.org — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:00:28 GMT

The pre-show announcement to turn off cell-phones/beepers etc. was recorded by John Lithgow. Apparently, not only did he go to Harvard, but it was being in a HG&S show that convinced him he wanted to be an actor.

Gilbert and Sullivan

vis@livingpaper.org — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:38:49 GMT

I got to see The Sorcerer last night, done by the Harvard G&S folks. It was decent. Several of the leads were strong, notably the Sorceror, Alexis, the Parson, and Lady Sangazure. The costuming and choreography were delightful. (They were done by Antonia Pugliese.)

As often happens at Harvard G&S, the chorus was mushy. Having tried to do a chorus in Henry V, with moderate, though limited success, I empathize with the problem. Getting everyone on cue while moving around and projecting to an audience is tricky - we needed another two weeks of rehearsal to have gotten it to what I would consider good - and I gather the show didn't have all that much time to rehearse.

One thing I found quite amusing: the actors playing Wells and Alexis bore a striking resemblance to their counterparts in the movie Topsy Turvy. I thought it worked out well.

All in all, quite a pleasant two hours on a Friday night.

clearly false

vis@livingpaper.org — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:14:49 GMT

"Twenty times heavier than our sun and 11,000 light years away from Earth, Cassiopeia A was a dense star that exploded roughly 330 years ago."

Is polyamory really wrong?

vis@livingpaper.org — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:54:11 GMT

So there's a popular little bit going around claiming polyamory is wrong because one oughtn't to mix Greek and Latin roots. Leaving aside whether or not that actually applies to English, I was wondering what the period practice was.

When Constantine splits the Empire into two pieces, the official language is certainly Latin. However, even if it's the de facto language at the time, eventually Greek predominates the eastern empire. What I'm wondering is, was there any sort of mixing of the two during the transition phase? (For that matter, was there a transition phase, or did the folks in the east always just speak Greek?)

Oh the do-gooders!

vis@livingpaper.org — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:07:47 GMT

On four of the lists I periodically read, folks have made off-topic suggestions extolling the virtues of exercising the franchise today. Like I would somehow miss that today is election day, and that, but for their well-intentioned ministrations, I might not otherwise make it to the voting booth.

There are a variety of off-topic posts I don't particularly object to. Tell me you're looking for a job, looking for an email address, throwing a party, starting up a business, or a plethora of other things in your self-interest and I'll either pass over or respond to it without the smallest bit of pique.

But really, trying to tell folks on these lists stuff for their own good is a pretty complete waste of bandwidth. First, the behavior clogs up the medium, as my multiple messages on the topic show; second, there are plenty of folks who might not actually agree with your message (indeed, part of me finds voting to be a huge waste of time in terms of efficiency; I do it only to establish membership in a particular social group, without any overbloated assessment of its worth.) Folks not on your side can't actually reasonably debate your point because its off-topic. So the "do-gooder" gets a free plug he doesn't deserve.

Furthermore, where does it end? I could easily post a message to all those groups exhorting me to vote today that they should remember to floss twice a day. Indeed, though that behavior would have more practical benefit for them than voting, I would, correctly, be roundly chastised for mucking up a perfectly good list with drivel.

7:16

vis@livingpaper.org — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:40:53 GMT

We handed out candy bar #1 at 5pm. We handed out candy bar 1200 at 7:16 pm.

One of these years, I'll make it to 8pm.

the zoo

vis@livingpaper.org — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:37:07 GMT

If you interested in seeing the migrating herds of wildebeast in their native habitat that we call Halloween around here, you're welcome to drop by this afternoon/evening. Peek viewing time is a bit after dusk. We'll run out of candy by 7:45 the latest, I expect.

an easy improvement I can make to my poker game

vis@livingpaper.org — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:23:03 GMT

I should buy a watch.

and the winner is ...

vis@livingpaper.org — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:47:53 GMT

... Chicago in December, from the 3rd to the 8th. I didn't book anything for January because Arisia is in January, plus I'm not sure I want to go to Vegas in the wintertime. If I decide to go away to play cards, it'll likely be in the Caribbean or Central America someplace.

The burning question of the day

vis@livingpaper.org — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:26:51 GMT

Southwest is having a sale, if only I act on it today. I can go to Florida or Chicago for $75, or Vegas for $100. What to do, what to do?

hanging out with musicians

vis@livingpaper.org — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:38:21 GMT

Tonight I went to jongleurs, drum in hand. It went alright, I think. I'm going to go bang on the thing again at dance practice next Wednesday.

I was concentrating on three things: 1) keeping the tempo even. 2) avoiding double-hitting with the sticks; 3) not missing. You'd think that last bit wouldn't be a problem, but I'm not very good, and so I can still hit the rim of the drum by mistake, or decelerate the drumstick so it doesn't actually touch the drumhead. Also,different parts of the drumhead make different sounds, and at some point in time, I'm hoping to consistently hit the parts that will produce the sound I intend. :)

Always looking to improve

vis@livingpaper.org — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:54:46 GMT

On Friday, my copy of the two-volume Harrington On Cash Games arrived, and I've been slowly working through it. I'm pretty sure it's improved my game already. I have a tendency to get involved in pots that are too large to warrant it when I have for my overpair/top pair/high pair hands, and the first part of the book immediately put that into focus for me, and I'm going to be playing those hands with an eye to limiting pot size more now.

I should remember to say what I mean

vis@livingpaper.org — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:42:07 GMT

It's a lesson I learned a long time ago, but still seem to forget when I get a chance to be witty. Anyway, it happened at the end of a long session at the MGM Grand. There was a gorgeous babe at the table, and a relatively decent player to boot. I was packing up my chips to head back to the hotel, and had the following conversation:

Her: Where are you going?
Me: Off to bed.
Her: Take me with you.
Me: I have a firm rule I've developed over the years of only going to bed with ladies whose name I know.

At this point, she takes out her comp card and flips it to me, which of course has her name on it, without revealing where she's from. Serves me right for trying to be clever. Twenty years ago I'd have taken her up in a flash, but now, one night stands are not such a big deal for me anymore, and I had to somehow backpedal without embarassing her in front of everyone else. (Yes, I suspect she was a working girl. So what?) I hope I managed it.

I'm sure the rest of the table thought I was nuts. They may well have been right. Late twenties, drop dead gorgeous, and quite the flirt through the evening. She used that to her advantage in the game too - she got a lot of guys to play her soft. Interestingly, I didn't, and though she commented on that, she did keep a good conversation going with me. I remember thinking at the time it was mild evidence for what I gather is the basic tenet of PUA theory: "Don't be a wimp."

Next time, the correct version of the answer I gave will be "No, thank you."

home safe

vis@livingpaper.org — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:06:49 GMT

I'm home again. It was a good trip, and went just about how I hoped it would. I played well, but because of the stakes I was playing at, and the expenses of the trip, I basically broke even. But as this was a combination proof that I could do this, and visit with my mom and her boyfriend, that is all right. I've expanded my stake a bit, and hopefully by the next time I go to Vegas, I'll be playing up at $5/$10.

Basically, the only thing I wish I'd done differently was figure out to play at the Bellagio sooner. I think for future trips, I'll do most of my playing there, with a little touristing around to see what other places, like the Rio and Palms, are like.

the $1000 hand

vis@livingpaper.org — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:52:07 GMT

So I have to say, the Mirage was fun, MGM catered to my level of play, the Venetian was gorgeous, but the best place I played, by far and away, was the Bellagio.

As many people mentioned to me, the players tended towards the obnoxious. Against that, they were, on par, the worst hold'em players I have ever seen. I played my last three sessions there, and wish I'd played a bunch more.

I had my all time big pot this afternoon. I had $400, and picked up J9 of spades UTG and raised to $6, and got four callers.

Flop was Kh, Qs, Ts. I bet $20, and get 4 callers.

Turn is the magical Ks, giving me the absolute nuts. I bet $60, next player goes all in for his remaining $80, the next player calls with another $100 behind, the third caller goes all in for his remaining hundred, and the fourth caller raises to $200. I call, the player with the hundred left sticks it in, and the betting ends.

I don't remember what the river was, but I stick my remaining chips in and get the call from the last guy with money.

First caller had A3 of spades, second had pocket queens, I never saw what the third caller had, and the fourth caller had KQ.

I'll leave it up to the reader to decide who played reasonably and who did not.

Go, Mom!

vis@livingpaper.org — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:51:18 GMT

My mother wants to go see Zumanity, the adult-oriented Cirque du Soleil, so I npw have two tickets for Sunday night's show.

changes

vis@livingpaper.org — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:20:17 GMT

It's been a while since I've been to Vegas. The Alladin is gone, replaced by Planet Hollywood and a glorified mall.

The pirate show at Treasure Island has been reworked too. The old featured pirates vs. a British warship. The new show swaps 10 scantily clad sirens in for the British. Much sillier, and much more fun. .

Viva Las Vegas!

vis@livingpaper.org — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:13:36 GMT

I'm heading out tomorrow, for eight days. I'm staying at the Luxor. I may or may not have email access, and certainly will have LJ access, though I don't know how much I'll look at either.

It is sort of a marginal trip. $2/$5 NL is a bit low to actually cover expenses and make a reasonable hourly rate, but I'm going both for the experience and because my mom is going to be there. One of the reasons I like playing in Chicago so much is that my expenses are fairly low there, since I can stay with friends.

The major result of all this is that I'm going to focus on playing poker, and not do so many of the other things Vegas has to offer. I'm going to bring my golf clubs, but I don't know that I'll actually use them. I do expect to exercise every day - if nothing else, I'm going to be walking back and forth between the Luxor and the Imperial Palace to meet my mom and her sweetie for dinner. The Luxor also claims to have a pool open, and I know they have an exercise room.
And of course, I can do a lot of my normal routine - push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, and squats, in my room. I'll bring a jump rope, and I suspect I can find someplace to use that.

But really, it's going to be all about the poker this trip. I'm clearly good against the small fish locally, time to see if I can move up in class a bit.

comparative learning

vis@livingpaper.org — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:45:13 GMT

For about a week now, my toe socks have gone on easily without my having to think about it at all. That means it basically took me three months to learn it well enough to be competent at it. I wonder how that compares to my toddler self learning how to put on my socks?

Now of course, these socks are a bit trickier, and I didn't have mom encouraging me (though Meredith occasionally mocks me when the little toe sticks out), but against that, I'm hopefully more competent now than I was at the two year mark.

While a cursory google search only yielded a tentative result, it occurs to me several people on my flist may well just know the answer to this question: how long does it take a toddler to learn how to put on socks?

Gaming Sunday

vis@livingpaper.org — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:36:47 GMT

There's going to be open gaming at the Buttery this Sunday starting at 1pm. I'm going to try to get a five-player game of Manifest Destiny going. Davey and I have played it through once, and it looks to be a very good interactive strategy game, of the genre I think of as "wargamer lite".

There will be plenty of other games as well, and likely to be a good dozen+ players, so you're likely to find someone interested in whatever it is you'd like to play.

computer poker

vis@livingpaper.org — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:43:19 GMT

So I've started using Poker Copilot, which gathers and displays statistics about the opponents I'm playing.

It isn't very sophisticated, as such programs go, but it does have the key bit of info I need when making decisions: whether or not the person is a winning player. In close decisions, that bit of info turns out to be stunningly valuable for getting my play right, at least when the player in question is a losing one.

If I've seen that someone has gone minus a fair number of BB/100 hands, and I'm wondering if some odd looking bet is just a desperaton bluff, it almost always is. Now that could be true with winning players too, of course, but it's a question of how often one bluffs: bad players do it way too frequently.

For my poker-playing friends

vis@livingpaper.org — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:19:11 GMT

I'm heading off to Vegas next Wednesday. Where do you like to play poker in Vegas, and why?

ETA: ... and by "Wednesday", I meant "Tuesday". Good thing I occasionally look at a calendar.

Fifty one beautiful dancing girls, forty nine beautiful costumes

vis@livingpaper.org — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:33:53 GMT

It was a good birthday. I started by going golfing at Townsend Country Club with my friend Glenn. I hadn't been there before. It's a bit out of the way, but a very pretty course, and quite inexpensive. I actually managed three pars in a row, and bogied the next two holes after that, so I played fairly well.

Spent the afternoon trying to buy stuff from Andy at Three Trolls, and mostly failing. I did pick up an Empire Army book for Warhammer, so I predict I'll be painting up a bunch of halbediers in my future. And maybe a steam tank or two. :)

We spent the evening at the circus, which we both enjoyed. It turned out I got front row tickets, so our seats were not only decent, but for part of the show they rode us around on a train set-up on the floor, so we got a really close-up view of the action.

Decent circuses all have their own style. Ringling's is animals. I liked the tigers, elephants, and horses very much. I also liked the acrobats and motorcyle stunts - they got seven motorcross style bikes zipping around inside a big metal sphere that was very impressive.

I didn't like the clowns. Doing inept well is very tricky, and they fell very flat at it. So basically, the acts were all very good, and the backstory tying the acts together dragged. Still, it was a show both Meredith and I liked a great deal.

I got home to find Meredith got me a drum I can play with the jongleurs (if only I have the wit for it!). It's a tambour, handmade, with lots of tuning options and a snare on one side. Figuring out how to play it will be fun.

And I guess my trip to Vegas is on - I booked the tickets last night. $450 round trip on Southwest. I'm going to have to make at least $1000 to break even on the trip, but I do expect to be moving up to the $2/$5 NL games while I'm there. I'm going to be staying at the Luxor, and google thinks that MGM is where I should play poker, but if anyone has experience with good places to play low stakes NLHE, I'd be glad of your opinion.

Samantha Geimer seems to be a very fascinating person

vis@livingpaper.org — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:05:01 GMT

Apparently, she wrote this back in 2002.

birthday expedition

vis@livingpaper.org — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:49:37 GMT

This Thursday Meredith and I are celebrating my birthday by going to the circus. This one is the Ringling Brothers circus, and is in Manchester, NH. If anyone is interested in joining us, you can get tickets here.