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Professor Randy Pausch finally lost to the ‘Big C’ last Friday. Very sad, and a reminder to us why we should all help fight this disease in anyway we’re able to. If you’ve not seen it, find some time to watch his last lecture.
As well as many sources, The Times has an obituary today.
Following on from My Brain – and Harriet’s observation that Amazon’s logo ‘says’ A->Z, I wonder how many other too subtle company logos are out there! Too subtle because while – now that it’s been pointed out to me – Amazon’s logo is pretty cool, I wonder whether they get a decent return on whatever sum of money it was that they paid whomever it was that designed it? Of course, it could just be me – like, did you notice it was an A-Z [as well as a smile-thingmy]?
So tonight [yesterday?] I won both ‘rounds’ of Poker in the PokerProject league – hosted by The Fiery Angel in Cheltenham.
I’ve won a round before – twice I think – but never won both rounds before – and it feels rather good [esp. as I was way down on chips going into the final with Steve (the only name I know him by)]
I paced myself – and it paid off. I don’t think I’m a good poker player, but I do think I have a certain intrinsic way of weighing the probability of a given hand – and, when that says ‘fold’ of not always going with it!
Steve should have won the second round tonight [we came first and second in the first hand – me first!], and he had such a huge chip advantage over me during most of the second round too. However, as he himself told me over a fag, he plays – or is prone to be – conservative … read: “I think this hand could win, so I’ll play it”.
Ok, and that’s all well and good when there are more than two people playing – but when one is ‘heads up’, well, it’s a weakness. Don’t get me wrong – I never thought I’d win the second round at all – and, I actually, truly wanted Steve to win – but I wasn’t going to just ‘roll over’ – although I did offer him a ‘let’s go all-in blind’ at one point … something I think he should have gone for.
So many of the poker players want to win – whereas I want to A) enjoy myself, and B) as long as ‘A’ happens or no, I don’t give a flying fuck about whether or not I win – I honestly don’t. So anyway. Steve was pleased with coming 2nd/2nd, and of course, I was happy coming 1st/1st – now I’ve done that – where does one go? I think it’s ‘bluffs-ville for me!’ from now on … or playing for real money [which I’d be carp at!] As good as a fish in other words!
Brian Clegg's recent post on Book Covers reminded me of what I consider to be the worst book cover in my collection:
Today, things just haven't gone right – much.
I still have a cold – and its got heavier – and drove me to have to go back to bed this pm. "I'll nap for a few mins", which turned into about four hours. So, that's a chunk of the day missed. I was also due to go to a wine tasting this evening – but having the snots make that socially unacceptable.
My 3Com 1100 switch is refusing to 'play ball' – but, what with my cold I'm not so inclined to investigate the why in detail today. I also think my ISP was playing silly buggers as I was tweaking it – which didn't help the head scratching. Still the Silenx fan I installed in it works a treat … so much so that I thought at first that it was duff – yes, it's that quiet that I had to see it spinning to know it was working!
I missed my son a lot. Sometimes I think school is cruel – not from his point of view [on one of his non-moaning mornings] – but from mine. As I work more or less totally from home these days, it seems that when I've returned from walking him in, that *my* life is cruelly affected. It's funny how just hearing your child patter around the place can light up your heart. He used to be Home Educated, and while that largely failed on a number of fronts for us, I do sometimes wish it were still the case – although I'd have only sneezed all over him lately and made him ill I suppose!
Just heard from a ex-Oxford friend and office mate of mine who's in Princeton: a lady who it was impossible not to soak up a smile from in any given day one was fortunate enough to be in her presence – even if it were but 'fleeting'. Jana, I miss you – come back! OR – at least get on Facebook!
Brian Clegg pisses me off 
I just read some of his stuff: his review of a novel, and then his blog. I hate [too strong] people who can write — I mean my 'reviews' are usually one liners, or even one word-ers ["crap", "Get it and read it", ...]. Yes, I'm sure I could do better, but I'd never be able to do 'a Clegg'. Brian doesn't really piss me off of course – I'm just jealous!
One good thing from today – I now know what Spirax Sarco 'do'. I've seen this company's buildings for about 20 years, and walk by their head office when I'm walking Daniel to school – but, until today – although I've often asked myself – I've not known what they actually produce. Many years ago someone told me it was zippers, and maybe that's why it's always slipped my mind to 'go see' myself. Anyway, today I finally remembered: it's stuff to do with boilers and steam heating. Must say that I preferred thinking it was zips.
P.S. In the bit about Brian there are two hyper-links. Do they appear the same to you – colour etc? One of them is yellow/orange for me, whilst the other is a light blue. I wish I could figure out the difference my style-sheet makes of these. I would investigate but well, you know – atchoo!
