Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Machka]

Stumbled across this and thought of you, enjoy!

http://www.silentuk.com/?p=2792

Terrific, how do you find this stuff, Aaron?

As someone in the "comments" noted....

This might possibly be the best fucking explore/report I’ve ever read. Sick work.

I messed up my Desire again last night, & "lost" the default screensaver somehow. Now I seem to have waving grass, fml.

The "battery preservation" measures you sorted for me have worked a treat, though, it's much much better now, & I get double the battery life. I can even press a button & see where the battery use goes. "cell standby" & "phone idle" seem to use the most, excepting, of course, voice calls & android.

Today marks the end of the most work-intensive few weeks I can recall in many a year, & I hope to re-start my Diary tomorrow. So much happened, so much to Post, some good, some bad, some so-so. It's been, as some wag once said on telly, emotional.

This particular link was one tweeted by Ben Goldacre (@Ben_Goldacre ) who runs an amazing site over at http://www.badscience.net/

As luck would have it the guy who sits next to me at work has a Desire and you have somehow managed to:

Press Menu [ahem]
Select Wallpaper
Select Live Wallpaper
Select Grass

quite a misclick.

So to revert to the original wallpaper:

Press Menu [ahem]
Select Wallpaper
Select Live Wallpaper
Select whatever the default wallpaper was.

On preserving the battery just remember once in a while to drag down the status bar at the top, select Open Advanced Task Killer, and kill the apps that don't look important.  If you kill anything you shouldn't have it will restart itself anyway.

Did you setup TweetDeck or eBuddy?  No?  Thought not!

[kinboshi]

Didn't you bother getting a spare battery for a fiver?

[kinboshi]

Stumbled across this and thought of you, enjoy!

http://www.silentuk.com/?p=2792

Terrific, how do you find this stuff, Aaron?

As someone in the "comments" noted....

This might possibly be the best fucking explore/report I’ve ever read. Sick work.

I messed up my Desire again last night, & "lost" the default screensaver somehow. Now I seem to have waving grass, fml.

The "battery preservation" measures you sorted for me have worked a treat, though, it's much much better now, & I get double the battery life. I can even press a button & see where the battery use goes. "cell standby" & "phone idle" seem to use the most, excepting, of course, voice calls & android.

Today marks the end of the most work-intensive few weeks I can recall in many a year, & I hope to re-start my Diary tomorrow. So much happened, so much to Post, some good, some bad, some so-so. It's been, as some wag once said on telly, emotional.

This particular link was one tweeted by Ben Goldacre (@Ben_Goldacre ) who runs an amazing site over at http://www.badscience.net/

As luck would have it the guy who sits next to me at work has a Desire and you have somehow managed to:

Press Menu [ahem]
Select Wallpaper
Select Live Wallpaper
Select Grass

quite a misclick.

So to revert to the original wallpaper:

Press Menu [ahem]
Select Wallpaper
Select Live Wallpaper
Select whatever the default wallpaper was.

On preserving the battery just remember once in a while to drag down the status bar at the top, select Open Advanced Task Killer, and kill the apps that don't look important.  If you kill anything you shouldn't have it will restart itself anyway.

Did you setup TweetDeck or eBuddy?  No?  Thought not!

The grass live wallpaper can also appear for a variety of other reasons.

[tikay]

Had a lovely restful & relaxing day yesterday, after a sustained period of (enjoyable) hard work, & a bit of pressure, business & private, which I got through quite well, all good. Planned to have a 4 days rest this weekend, go see some friends, chill, play a bit of poker.

Went & saw Tom at his place yesterday, had a lovely hour or two with him & Mrs Red. Grimmed him for £500, too. (Might pop in again & pay you over the weekend, Tom). Then went & had tea with a young Lady, just chilled for an hour, sat in the garden, birds were flying back & forth, & there were more butterflies flitting about than I can recall in many a year. Lovely.

Chatted on the phone to Flushy for half-hour or so. I hope all will be well with him & his FT deal. Might go down to Brighton & see him this weekend, they have a nice Fessie on at the Rendezvous, but I'm worried about lack of runners, + there is a nice £150 20k chip jobbie at G-Luton tomorrow. Time for a dither.

As to Flushy & Tilt, he's bullish, as, clearly, FT & 'Stars will now attack the European market as hard as hell. My curiosity is manifold, but for example, what will happen to all the American FT Pros? Look at this wiki Page & note how many there are! How many will survive at FT, & which ones? Anyone care to guess? Will the "Big Names" all snap move to Europe, South of France or whatever, & play from there?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Tilt_Poker

The DoJ story has plenty of mileage left in it, I'm quite sure of that.

[tikay]

Eventually, I ended up at Luton for the £100. Great crowd in, 70 I think, with all the regulars, plus a good many from Sky Poker, including Direwolf, Scotty, Supernova. Chomps & Vinni tied for the worst shirt ever award.

I just nitted my way into the Final, aided by a few bits of good fortune. Pete Wigglsworth made a squeeze play in the SB after a Raise & 3 callers, good move really, he jammed for 19k into 6k. Hard to call unless holding a biggie in the Big Blind. I was in the BB with K-K, playing 35k, & after some tankage - can't be too careful - I made the Hero Call.  He flipped 5-2. Flop came 3-4-x, but I'm running very good at the mo, & faded the outs. MBN to be me.

And so it went. Earlier, Graham Pound had paid me off every street when I flopped a set of 8's.

I barely played 10 or 15 hands pre-Final, maybe made 2 or 3 steals all night. Economy of effort, & plenty of run-good. The Table Company & general atmo & craic was as good as I can ever remember it at Luton. 

I 2xup early in the Final, & then sat out for a while whilst the shorties squabbled. I got bitten twice though, had to fold marginals to strong action behind, was was still in OK shape with 6 left. I can't fail to be top three now. There was about £4,000 up for grabs for the top three, & I fancied I'd sneak in & cut a deal.

Death was sudden, the very essence & beauty of NLH, I suppose. After cruising all night, never in danger at any time, I done the lot in one hand, & I'd do it again in the same spot. Geezer, with a most peculiar game-style - he just jammed the lot in whenever he played a hand - jammed for about 130k, I looked him up with J-J, then guy behind me snap calls for slightly less. Whoops. OR had K-Q, guy behind me had aces, Board was K-high, taxi 4 tikay, with £370.

Would not change a thing about the day, or the evening, almost the perfect day, & I planned to spend the weekend doing more of the same, & updating, well overdue, my diary as to the last few weeks, which have been "eventful", to say the least. Like you would not believe. I have so much I want to Diary, but my mind is all of a dither today.

[tikay]

It was about 4.30am when I busted, & I'd had such a wonderful day & evening, I did not want it to end, just relaxing & enjoying myself in good company all day, & no aggro. God, I hate aggro, especially endless aggro & the hate that seems so prevelant these days on the Internet.

G-Luton still had 50 or more punters in the cardroom, & the atmo was lovely, I did not want to leave. I cashed in, then went back, & decided to go have a smoke with Vinni, so I could mock his gingham shirt. It was truly awful, really.

I have to say, I admire Vinni so much. Few men could handle the year he has had & put on a brave face, but he does. Lost a Daughter & his Mum inside 12 months, but never moped or sought sympathy once. My admiration for his courage is immense. Many would do well to learn from him. My mind wanders between him, & Forum aggro, not just here, everywhere, blonde, Sky, THM, & I don't know what to say or think sometimes, I hate all the needless aggro with every bone in my body. What a contrast.

Anyway, I hope that does not come across wrong, I am struggling to articulate properly today after a bad morning, but I really want to explain it.

[tikay]

Bollox. You could not mak it up. Just as I am gtting my thoughts down on paper, th " " has falln off my kyboard.

Will hav to swap Lappis now, & us th spar on. B right back.

[AndrewT]

Lol - you muppt.

[Karabiner]

Surely it's easier for American pros to relocate to either Canada or Mexico.

I reckon flushy should be fine, his and other European red pros' stock has probably risen in a way.

[DaveShoelace]

I presume they would have to pay tax in Canada or mexico, whereas its cushy over here.

[tikay]

OK, lappie #2 now fired up.

So, I go into the cage at Luton for a smoke with Vinni. Life is good.

He's on the net, via his 'phone.

"You been Online & seen it?" he asks.

Nope, been offline the whole day, what's up?

"Want to know, really?"

Umm, I suppose so, I say, dreading what is coming next. More forum aggro, I guess.

And he shows me a Facebook exchange.

I don't want to look, but he tells me. FFS.

I drive home, depressed as I can be. What is the matter with people?

I do not log on at first, I don't want to, I'm dreading it, but eventually, I do.

And I see this Facebook entry, by a Banned blonde, discussing Tom.

That gypo fucker hated me, gonna burn his caravan down lol

To get this in context, the guy was banned from blonde, at a guess, four or 5 years ago. And still the hate lingers. What to think & say about such an individual?

5 years ago, & still all that bigoted hate? All over a poker forum? What?

And despite several blondes & ex-blondes commenting on the same "string", not one person objected to the comments, or said "hold on fella, that's a bit strong, even in jest". Including, of course, me. I am not sure whether to, or not. Maybe I'm a drama queen (guilty as charged), maybe I'm over-sensitive, maybe I'm a daft twat.

In my defence, Tom is my best friend, the best friend I ever had. Brave, strong, wise, & my counsel whenever I have a problem in life. I love him to death, more than anything or anyone. So I suppose an over-reaction is possible, likely even. Maybe I just lost my sense of humour, I don't know.

The thing is, "burn the gypo's caravan down" is more than most realise, & perhaps the guy who wrote it never realised. It's a symbolic thing with Gypsies, & the bigots who despise them, it's as offensive as "nigger", "paki", or whatever.

The comment has been seen by numerous people, I know that from a flood of e-Mails this morning. It's been reported to Facebook (by Tighty, God bless him) but it's still there, even now.

I suppose I'll be flamed to death now, but hey, I get flamed daily, everywhere, by banned Members, too bad, I'll deal with it, and when I retire, I'll never go near a Forum or Facebook ever again. I don't want or need to be exposed to these dreadful people, I just don't. I get it myself, daily, & I don't enjoy it, but it's OK, there are compensations (no pain, no gain) but this feels different.

A painful morning, a painful Post, & I hope it's properly understood by those who read it, or reply. I genuinely don't know if I'm just being over-sensitive, because Tom is my man, & most people in my spot, would, I hope, be equally saddened, no?

I just don't know what to think.

Tom's reaction? You can guess. He's more upset that nobody has taken issue with the Post, I think. Anyway, I won't second-guess his views, he can look after himself. Like me, he does not know what to think, or say, right now. Both of us feel the same - are Forums worth all this? Is a fucking poker forum really that important that people think that sort of comment is fine & dandy? Because a Member got Banned, 5 years ago? From a poker forum?

I can't really grasp how Forms are so emotive that a ban causes such hatred.

So there you are. I don't Post a lot of my private thoughts, because I know I'll get mullered, but I feel a duty to Tom to say my piece. And if people don't like it, they can gtfo.

If anyone can decipher the real message here, I hope they comment.

And I'm pretty sure I know what many will think, & say. "Over-sensitive", "gone soft in the head", "drama queen".

I'm as honest with myself as I know how to be, but I honestly don't know if they'd be right or not. If so, guilty as charged, I won't argue.

I suppose it's hard for people to imagine wearing other people's shoes.

[tikay]

Taking of internet "etiquette", I was on THM the other day, google alert had picked up something, so I went for a look.

Karabiner has posed a question, & made a truthful statement about blonde, & myself.

He was called a "fucking buffoon".

Lovely. I snapped a bit, & went on there, for the first time in yonks. Probably a mistake, but hey ho. The guy then apologised. Do people never think before they Post? Is the art of reasoned debate a thing of the past? Or is the average poker Forum user (of which I am one) just thick, stupid, & insensitive?

Then again, as per the previous Post, as to Tom, maybe I'm just out of step.

On balance, I think I am.  It won't change though.

[tikay]

Surely it's easier for American pros to relocate to either Canada or Mexico.

I reckon flushy should be fine, his and other European red pros' stock has probably risen in a way.

Yes, I suppose so.

There are so many facets of this thing that are still up in the air.

But with traffic down nearly 50%, can FT afford to keep so many?

I agree as to Flushy, though, I think he'll be OK. I hope so.

[tikay]

Saw "Regards" yesterday, at BMW Leicester, he's in fine heart. I had introduced him to a friend, & she had purchased a convertible 3 Series from him.

What a lovely day to buy a convertible! I spoke to her last night, she was out crusing, with the top down, bless.

I need to keep out of car showrooms realy, especially BWM ones, as I get tempted, & impulsive, & they have some gorgeous motors there. But then I realise, what's wrong with mine?

[tikay]

Might poodle down to Brighton Rendezvous tonight, & play the £200 Double Chance.

I have an urge to spend all evening updating my Diary on a rare day off, but I'm scared I may go too far. I'm in a strange mood today.

The silence on the thread is almost deafening.

I'll maybe take a shower, & then a leisurely drive down to Brighton on a summers evening, that's not so bad. Might make more sense than making a fool of myself on here with my admissions of being a soft sod.

I don't regret it though, well, not yet. Tomorrow, maybe, today, no.