life

Day-to-day events and activities.

Old and new

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Ross leaves now for Los Angeles to become an acting star. He hopes. I hope so too, then I can dream about being in his entourage.

My copy of the new Wolfenstein game arrived today! Yay! The single player is quite well made albeit a little generic apart from the veil powers. I’m more interested in the multiplayer although I doubt I’ll be too competitive at it compared to how I used to be. Still, it’s nice having a copy to muck around with.

I came second in a free poker tournament tonight. By the time it was down to the final two of us we’d had enough and went all-in after about 10 rounds of checking and folding. I lost. No big deal, I got lots of play chips in prize money! Wahoo!

I haven’t been to the gym for a while. I know that hardly sounds shocking but the thought of it is nagging me in the back of my head. I might attempt to make the effort tomorrow. I’m probably going back down south with Marika in a week for a few days so I’m tentative about paying for a whole new month. That’s a poor excuse though, really, as I can quite easily skip exercise for up to a whole week. This lazy lifestyle will have to change some day.

Looks like Tim and I are moving out of our flat come the end of October. I don’t know what he’s doing yet and neither does he. I’ll probably be living with Marika and her student buddies in some tiny little room. Ah well. At least it will be cheap. I suppose I could just become a poker king… Meh. We’ll see.

I watched District 9 recently and really enjoyed it although the ending was a bit cliche. If you like science fiction you would probably enjoy this film. It’s hit #35 on IMDb’s top 250 somehow. I mean, it’s good, but I don’t know if it’s that good. I think it’s been somewhat over-rewarded for producing a solid movie alongside a clever viral marketing campaign, kind of like The Dark Knight did last year. I mean, #8 (for a while it was at #2 or #3) of all time? Batman? Really?

I wish I could talk about the latest book I’ve read but unfortunately I’ve been skimping in that department even more than my exercise. My eyes hurt.

Not my day

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This won’t make any sense if you don’t know much about poker.

I just blew about $30 of money that wasn’t mine on poker today (which lessens the pain, at least). Talk about a bad beat.

Every time I had a genuinely strong hand, no one was in the pot. $0.05/$0.10 blinds and the biggest pot I could take in about 300 hands was $0.30.

Every time I tried something a bit more speculative (for mid-price calls) I got no action on the table.

Every time I folded a upper-mid range hand I would have had the nut flush on the flop.

Every time I tried to push people out of pots when I had a strong hand, people just kept calling (against pot odds) for draws, then hitting them on the river and beating my hand.

I ended up going balls-out in one hand, with 2 pair, jack high. I lost it to someone who was ace high and it cost me about $8.

The final straw was losing all-in with pocket kings to a guy with pocket aces. $10.

I’m very tempted to stick to video games from now on.

So, I'm learning a new game or two

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2

“What games”, you ask?

Well, one of them would be… poker!

I’ve spent a reasonable amount of the last week chipping in. I’ve even been registering for free tournaments alongside Tim and Ross. We’re actually starting to do fairly well, considering we’ve only been into it for a few days. I’d say my biggest problem is getting bored and overplaying my hand instead of actually pausing to listen to my instincts (which usually scream “FOLD!”).

I’ve had a go on the cash games and had mixed results. I think that when I develop my patience and kill off the foolishness that I will start to do fairly well. To make this even easier, all the money I have in my accounts have been free gifts from people, so I’m technically up a few bucks already!

Of course, I don’t expect to make any profit from this. Not for a long time if even at all. It’s just fun to play something competitively again and it helps to do it with some friends.

Speaking of playing competitively, I don’t think I’ll be able to run the new RTCW2 even though I really wish I could. This poor laptop is hobbling along like a wounded soldier. Maybe more like a sick dog. Either way, I still have a soft spot for it.

I’m very excited that this game is coming out this month. I still have a hard on for RTCW1 and that’s where I made a lot of friends that I still keep in contact with today. In fact, most of them are coming back to play the sequel. I just wish I could join in the games with them. I’m still going to be involved with the community and that’s a big thing for me, as I’ve been waiting for something like this again for years.

Coding coding coding

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It’s oh so fun but oh so annoying.

What I’m dreading most is cleaning up all the CSS I’ve hacked around with for the site I’m building. When it’s done I’ll let you all play with it.

Gym… tomorrow! :D

Folk festival… the day after!

Flux me

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That food tasted just as salty for breakfast. Never mind.

I just realised that I almost cut my toe off after accidentally kicking a wall in the hostel last night. I think I was pirouetting after putting away some empty bottles when wham, a big chunk came out of my middle left toe. In socks. Actually, it might just be sock fluff compacted into the wound as I haven’t had the drive to lift my foot closer to my face for an inspection. Not yet at least.

Today I am making adzika and tomorrow Marika is 22. Not long after that I will be at the folk festival. Again. I don’t even know who is playing but I’m sure it won’t matter as I find most of the music kind of boring anyway.

Hans, I want to go to the gym today but I feel too lazy and sleepy. My spare tyre will never leave me, will it?

This program is cool: Flux. It adjusts the brightness of your screen according to the time of day based on your location. Basically it will stop it from burning your eyes at night time.

WHAT THE FUCK

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I just found out why my Internet speed constantly drops from 12Mb/s to 4Mb/s: it’s meant to.

Yes. The first few seconds of the file (depending on its size) will go at the full 12Mb/s in order to “PowerBoost” it. Then it’s throttled. What the fuck is that about?

I’m pissed off that I wasn’t aware of that at the time that we signed up. I’m also pissed our landlord recommended this stupid company to us as they also provide shit cable TV (mostly in Russian). We should have gone Elion but she said Starman was already connected and that we would have Internet in our flat. She didn’t tell us that she’d “sold” the router and modem first and that we would have to buy our own and then sign a new contract for it… So we never actually had it in the first place. Christ almighty.

In other news, I rejoined the gym. Deane visited. Other people keep hanging around. Marika went to Sweden today with her mum. I’m sick of having skin like a desert. I’m beginning to lose hair. I don’t do much apart from sit around in my flat playing games or wasting time browsing the web (at 4Mb/s after 10 seconds).

Fuck it.

*Update*

I just checked Elion. If we went with them it would have been a genuine 12Mb/s for half the fucking price. AHHHHH. I am very annoyed.

*Update 2*

Oh and we already had our own modem/router that works with Elion but we had to buy a separate one for Starman as they were not compatible. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! :(

Online poker

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I really should start playing it properly. I found out that most people just play to break even and then profit on the money they receive from rakeback. Considering that I don’t really do much with my overwhelming amount of free time, perhaps I should take this up again.

Of course, it’s a long-term plan to learn to play effectively and set monetary goals and I’m not the best person when it comes to long-term dedication. Still, it’s a nice competitive way to make some pocket money.

I should drink more… Maybe.

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I have the most awesome game design ideas/pitches when I am relaxed. Relaxed, due to alcohol, that is.

Maybe; just maybe; if you’re lucky; I’ll explain it later.

Yes, I’ve missed you, too.

P.S. my new flat is fucking sexy.