Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[JaffaCake]

Thank you kind sir, very kind of u to say that, tho it may be a rub on my poker abilities telling me to give up lol. I haven't written for more than 10 years, seems natural progression to go from writing as a junior to being given responsility to sub other people's (new juniors) work to subbing and editing. I thought I could write until I started doing shifts at the Sunday Times and had to cut swathes of beautifully crafted match reports and features from the writers there. They inspired me to stick to subbing.

Sure you're reaching Jeremy Shu-How Lin overload (full name), but I was reading a piece on how he fell through the net, who passed him up, who cut him, who didn't give him his chance (remember he left high school and got no schoarship offers, left college and got no offers from the NBA, and even at New York, he's been there 22 or so games and not moved off the bench for 13 of them) and I thought this was a beatiful piece of prose from ESPN.com:

"There's more joy in this kid's story than a box of puppies. Millionaire execs being wrong. Harvard -- a place that has produced more presidents ( than NBA players (4) -- being right. Asian stereotypes going bust. As the father of an Asian-American daughter, I love it.
 
But the best part is that Lin is a hoop hopes machine now. He gives every kid at the end of every high school bench, every college scrub who never gets a minute, every 13th man in the NBA … faith. Faith that someday, if he can finally get his chance, he can Shu them How.
 
Fortune lies in front of Lin like a golden highway now. And it should. He paved it. Congrats to him. Without his will and effort, the poor kid probably would be stuck running Goldman Sachs by now."

I'm backing the Knicks to win tonight....Linderella story to continue

[TightEnd]

ESPN is horrific, makes Sky Sports News, where no news is news 24 hours a day, look like the Wall St Journal

Really OTT

As on twitter tonight "If Jeremy Lin dunked on Lebron in a Yankees cap, then celebrated by Tebowing in front of Brett Favre, would ESPN explode?"

[tikay]

Channel 534, 10pm (now).

Halcyon River Diaries.

Following the wildlife on an English river, and the fortunes of three very different birds - kingfishers, dippers, and moorhens.

[Chili]

Missed your posts yesterday teeks. Tyvm for posting the worst pictures in existence of me I guess I forgive you for at least it was a sweet sentiment

Oh just a little correction your highness, in the GUKPT at the Vic in that huge hand I scooped I had KK v AA v AA v QQ aipf.

Queen on the flop and a beautiful King on the river. Probably my sweetest/luckiest moment in poker so far.

[JaffaCake]

Linsanity continued tonight, our boy had a new career high in assists, 13, only 10 points but he only took six shots in a blowout win, he sat most of the second half ready for tougher battles ahead. Seven straight wins for the Knicks now, they were 8-15 (won eight lost 15) before the Linderella story started. Even Mr Obama is a fan. And Tikay too...

[tikay]

Missed your posts yesterday teeks. Tyvm for posting the worst pictures in existence of me I guess I forgive you for at least it was a sweet sentiment

Oh just a little correction your highness, in the GUKPT at the Vic in that huge hand I scooped I had KK v AA v AA v QQ aipf.

Queen on the flop and a beautiful King on the river. Probably my sweetest/luckiest moment in poker so far.

"Highness"? You can calll me Mr Kendall, as Mr Giblin does.

How was the birthday? Sweet candlelit dinner?

What a hand that was, sorry I got it wrong. If MereGeek read this Diary, he's give us the odds - A-A, v A-A, v K-K, v Q-Q - on a 9 handed table, what a cooler! I recall you got a bit of stick for not folding pre, I also recall you gave a damn....

Happy memories. Good job it was not online, can you imagine what the nutcase conspiracy therorists would say?

Speak soon,

xx

[tikay]

Channel 534, 10pm (now).

Halcyon River Diaries.

Following the wildlife on an English river, and the fortunes of three very different birds - kingfishers, dippers, and moorhens.

This was as good as TV gets, for me, anyway. The couple live on or by a river, Mum & Dad are both wildlife nutcases, & are bringing up the kids to respect nature. The dad is a cameraman geek, & the footage of the dipper was wonderful, what a lovely & inquisitive bird. As Tom reminded me by text last night, Geo the Sarge had photographed a dipper only days ago, & Rod P had described them as "wee dippers". At the time, it was all lost on me, now I understand, a stunning little bird.

It ended in drama, too. A Moorhen had, very oddly, nested high up in a tree, over the river, & hatched 6 young, & I kept thinking, "how will they get down from the tree?" We found out in the most awful way - they all jumped down into the river - instinct, I guess - & they all died within minutes from the shock of the fall. Horrible.

As if we could not be shocked any more, next up, his "kingfisher family" ended up with an "affair" between three kingfishers (1 male, 2 females), & the two females fought to the very death - quite common apparently, they try to drown each other. Nature, in all it's beauty & horror.

Earlier, we saw kigfishers feeding. When they catch a fish, they always eat it, (or swallow it, more correctly), head first. So the fella knew his Kingfisher was feeding it's young, because the bird turned the fish the other way round in its mouth, so as to feed it to it's young the right way round. Incredible.

What a great piece of TV, though.

Photos from "Birdforum.net", with thanks.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

For those of you not quite so up on BMX stuff as me, this is the old 720 double tailwhip. Very rare, this.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waneHjpiaP8

Not impressed? Here it is in slow-motion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=T-VArPLwQ-g&NR=1

Here's his bike - got a 20.6 top tube, you know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=zjZWtVWz740&NR=1

Bit of a ledge, is Dan.

[tikay]

Linsanity continued tonight, our boy had a new career high in assists, 13, only 10 points but he only took six shots in a blowout win, he sat most of the second half ready for tougher battles ahead. Seven straight wins for the Knicks now, they were 8-15 (won eight lost 15) before the Linderella story started. Even Mr Obama is a fan. And Tikay too...

Just keeps delivering.

You mentioned "Lin overload" yesterday - no way, keep this story coming, loving it.

Did you see Methuselah's translation of a swish - "nothing but net, baby". Incred wordage, for a man in his late sixties.

[Tractor]

For those of you not quite so up on BMX stuff as me, this is the old 720 double tailwhip. Very rare, this.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waneHjpiaP8

Not impressed? Here it is in slow-motion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=T-VArPLwQ-g&NR=1

Here's his bike - got a 20.6 top tube, you know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=zjZWtVWz740&NR=1

Bit of a ledge, is Dan.

No idea why you posted this but that is incred skills.

[tikay]

I have always loved The Beatles:

 http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1978942,00.html

Thanks for that link, Neil, sorry for the delay in replying, we got a bit sidetracked by Queen Elizabeth & King Lin.

I was surprised you have a Beatles thing - you seem too young. They "broke" when I was in my teens.

I went through those photos, what memories they stirred. Put simply, the Beatles were a game changer & a life changer for that generation, nothing so big in music ever happened before or since.

We hated it when they went all druggy & hippy though, then the transcendental phase, all that Inida stuff & sitars, the ugly unkempt beards, then Yoko Ono turned up, & we despised her for her intrusion.

John & Paul were our initial favourites, George emerged as a stronger personality later, & very much liked (he was big in motor racing for a while), Ringo was always 4th of 4 in our affections. They all had those pretensious homes on the Weybridge estate, (I waited outside once, to catch a glimpse), & that amazing Roller that John had.

Then the in-fighting started, Epstein had died, it was either Eastman (McCartney) or Klein (Lennon) & that wonderfully named company, "Apple Corp".

John went funny in the head - sleep-ins in Amsterdam, Paul fell in with Linda (we hated Linda, too), & so it went on.

Then John got killed, such a horrible day for so many of us, that was the day the dream died, & I recall the exact moment I heard the news, & where I was, just ike the Kennedy assasination.

John had eventually become my hero, in so many ways. But even in the immediate aftermath of his death, I recognized he was not a good man, not at all, he was horrible, but he was still my hero, & I loved him, warts & all. Sadly, as ever after a Celeb dies suddenly & too early, the Media went all sychophantic, (as with Whitney last week) "he was a wonderful man". He was not, not at all, he was a piece of shit, but I loved him, & I hated the hypocrites, & I learned so many life lessons from the whole thing.

The dream was over, & life was never quite so exciting again.

In this photo, these lads epitomised "cool". These days, we can but Imagine.

[tikay]

For those of you not quite so up on BMX stuff as me, this is the old 720 double tailwhip. Very rare, this.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waneHjpiaP8

Not impressed? Here it is in slow-motion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=T-VArPLwQ-g&NR=1

Here's his bike - got a 20.6 top tube, you know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=zjZWtVWz740&NR=1

Bit of a ledge, is Dan.

No idea why you posted this but that is incred skills.

You were not aware of my BMX skillz, & history?

[tikay]

This was John's Roller. The establishment hated him - HATED him - for this, it broke all the rules. Rolls Royces are meant to be black, regal, pompous.

John just put two fingers up to the world, effectively said "in yer eye".

No idea if the car still exists, but it would be worth a small fortune if it were.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Incredibly, after all these years, there is still an up to date Beatles blog.

https://beatlesblogger.wordpress.com/

Remember, kidz, when the Beatles were around, the internet was still 25 years in the future! We used a sae to send for stuff, & got a "Beatles Fan club" Magazine once a month in the post. Listening was via the pirate ships initially, Radio London, & Radio Caroline, moored off Frinton-on-Sea, & Walton-on-the-Naze.

[outragous76]

I was surprised you have a Beatles thing - you seem too young. They "broke" when I was in my teens.

call

no way you are getting that thru - not even in a giant wall of text