Mon, 24 Oct 2005
Well, since I couldn’t play in the big blogger’s tournament yesterday I thought I’d spend some time in a Sit&Go. These are quick 9 person single table tournaments where you just try to knock everyone out. The top 3 places are paid prizes. So here’s how it went: Start off by scaring them The very first hand I’m dealt Big Slick A K. We go to the river and I end up with a pair of Kings with an Ace kicker. That’s good enough for the win and after one hand I’m the chip leader. Table ‘14205588 1’ Seat #1 is the buttonSeat 1: DruLeeParsec (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: biggrems (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: Dunchkin (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: supervene (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: garyd666 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: QladiesfullQ (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: stevestjames (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: curlyshawn14 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: Nut 777 (1500 in chips)
biggrems: posts small blind 10
Dunchkin: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DruLeeParsec [As Kh]
supervene: folds
garyd666: calls 20
QladiesfullQ: calls 20
stevestjames: calls 20
curlyshawn14: folds
Nut 777: raises 80 to 100
DruLeeParsec: raises 80 to 180
biggrems: folds
Dunchkin: folds
garyd666: calls 160
QladiesfullQ: folds
stevestjames: folds
Nut 777: calls 80
*** FLOP *** [Ts 8s Ks]
garyd666: checks
Nut 777: bets 100
DruLeeParsec: raises 100 to 200
garyd666: folds
Nut 777: calls 100
*** TURN *** [Ts 8s Ks] [2d]
Nut 777: bets 20
DruLeeParsec: raises 60 to 80
Nut 777: calls 60
*** RIVER *** [Ts 8s Ks 2d] [Td]
Nut 777: checks
DruLeeParsec: checks Should I have been more aggressive here?
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Nut 777: shows [Kd Qd] (two pair, Kings and Tens)
DruLeeParsec: shows [As Kh] (two pair, Kings and Tens - Ace kicker)
DruLeeParsec collected 1170 from pot
Not bad A good laydown Dealt to DruLeeParsec [Qc Kc]
Dunchkin: calls 20
supervene: calls 20
garyd666: folds
QladiesfullQ: folds
stevestjames: folds
curlyshawn14: folds
Nut 777: folds
DruLeeParsec: raises 80 to 100
biggrems: folds
Dunchkin: calls 80
supervene: calls 80
*** FLOP *** [3s 3d 8d]
DruLeeParsec: checks missed the flop completely
Dunchkin: bets 1010 and is all-in
supervene: raises 100 to 1110 and is all-in
DruLeeParsec: folds
*** TURN *** [3s 3d 8d] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [3s 3d 8d Th] [Kd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Dunchkin: shows [Jd 7d] (a flush, King high)
supervene: shows [Kh 3h] (a full house, Threes full of Kings)
supervene collected 2340 from pot
Yep, even though I would have had a pair of Kings, the full house still would have won. So it was a good laydown. All In OK, at some point in no limit, you have to go all in and just take the money. There’s no better time to do it than when you have pocket Aces Seat 1: DruLeeParsec (2110 in chips)
Seat 4: supervene (1460 in chips)
Seat 6: QladiesfullQ (2395 in chips)
Seat 7: stevestjames (1985 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: curlyshawn14 (3380 in chips)
Seat 9: Nut 777 (2170 in chips)
DruLeeParsec: posts small blind 25
supervene: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DruLeeParsec [Ac Ad] Oh Yeah Baby!
QladiesfullQ: raises 150 to 200
stevestjames: folds
curlyshawn14: folds
Nut 777: folds
DruLeeParsec: calls 175
supervene: folds
*** FLOP *** [4d 9s 6c]
DruLeeParsec: bets 200
QladiesfullQ: raises 300 to 500
DruLeeParsec: raises 1410 to 1910 and is all-in
QladiesfullQ: calls 1410
*** TURN *** [4d 9s 6c] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [4d 9s 6c 2s] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DruLeeParsec: shows [Ac Ad] (a pair of Aces)
QladiesfullQ: shows [Qs Qd] (a pair of Queens)
DruLeeParsec collected 4270 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4270 | Rake 0
Board [4d 9s 6c 2s Kh]
Seat 1: DruLeeParsec (small blind) showed [Ac Ad] and won (4270) with a pair of Aces
We’re In The Money, We’re In The Money Continued tight aggressive play and the general looseness of the table
We’re all in the bubble, but I’m the chip leader And then there were 3 Tight aggressive play kept me in the chip leader position and I was able to steal some blinds and wait it out until somebody made a mistake. Dominated! We’re down to 3 players, we’re all in the money and going to get paid more than the cost of our entry fee. I’m dealt a QQ and I try to steal some blinds and maybe knock somebody out. But I get called with a KK. Table ‘14205588 1’ Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: DruLeeParsec (2255 in chips)
Seat 7: stevestjames (8430 in chips)
Seat 8: curlyshawn14 (2815 in chips)
DruLeeParsec: posts the ante 25
stevestjames: posts the ante 25
curlyshawn14: posts the ante 25
curlyshawn14: posts small blind 100
DruLeeParsec: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DruLeeParsec [Qs Qh] Oh Yeah!
stevestjames: folds
curlyshawn14: calls 100
DruLeeParsec: raises 2030 to 2230 and is all-in
curlyshawn14: calls 2030 Oh Yeah!
curlyshawn14: shows [Ks Kc] Oh No! I need a queen
*** FLOP *** [Jd Kh 2s] I’m drawing dead
*** TURN *** [Jd Kh 2s] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [Jd Kh 2s Jh] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
curlyshawn14: shows [Ks Kc] (a full house, Kings full of Jacks)
DruLeeParsec: shows [Qs Qh] (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
curlyshawn14 collected 4535 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4535 | Rake 0
Board [Jd Kh 2s Jh As]
Seat 1: DruLeeParsec (big blind) showed [Qs Qh] and lost with two pair, Queens and Jacks
Seat 7: stevestjames (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: curlyshawn14 (small blind) showed [Ks Kc] and won (4535) with a full house, Kings full of Jacks
And I’m out in 3rd place but still in the money. What a great game. I’m losing my fear of no limit hold-em and really starting to figure out how to use what I’ve learned playing and studying Limit Hold-em in No Limit Hold-em. See ya at the tables. I’m “DruLeeParsec” on
PokerRoom
PokerStars
and
PartyPoker
Cheers!
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[/poker] department
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The tournament that was not to be
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[/poker] department
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Sat, 22 Oct 2005
Well, I’m In! I just received this email from PokerStars: Reminder! PokerStars Blogger Championship this Sunday 4pm EST Hello, This is a reminder that you are registered for the Inaugural PokerStars Blogger Championship to be held this Sunday, October 23rd 2005 4pm EST (1pm PST). Good Luck to all registrants! May the best blogger win! So tomorrow I’ll be playing in the blogger’s tourney for FREE I also got a nice email from Zog over at www.pokerdiagram.com If you havn’t heard their podcast then you need to download it. Henry and Zog play tournaments on Poker Room and they give live running commentary on the game as it progresses. Not only are they funny, but I find that it really helps solidify my understanding of no-limit strategy because I can listen to the thoughts of the players as they’re in a game situation But the last show where they played Hi-Lo Omaha for the first time was hilarious. Not just for their self-admitted lack of Omaha knowledge, but their commentary is priceless. So go check out Henry and Zog. And try not to laugh so hard that you spit your Gin & Tonic out your nose. Also, I have a few new card nicknames that I’ve found around the ‘net: 2 7 offsuit “The Hammer” (this ones pretty common)K 2 offsuit “The Devil’s Cards” (From Henry and Zog)
Q 3 “The Gay Waiter” (A queen with a trey)
Any Q with a small kicker (The Michael Jackson)
K J offsuit “The Anna Kournikova” Looks great, but really doesn’t play that well.
So I’ll let you know tomorrow how I do on the Bloggers Championship. I’ll try to make Henry and Zog proud. Cheers!
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[/poker] department
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Tue, 18 Oct 2005
Well, the calendar is working, but now the RSS feed isn’t. So for the next hour or so stories are going to be moving around and blog entry dates will be changing while I work this out. Quotes, it’s the darn quotes in my story. OK, found it. Luckily, my RSS reader forwarded me to this RSS validator and I was able to see what the problem was. It seems that I wrote this essay in MS Word and even though I saved it as a text file Word inserted some kind of bizarre quotation marks that couldn’t be converted into clean XML. But now it’s fixed AND we learned about RSS validators. So that’s not too bad.This story is from the
[/geek] department
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On the Acoutsic Gutiar Talk forum user ChiliBill has challenged people to write a “What I did last summer” essay. I decide to take a different route and use it as a creative writing excercise. So here’s my entry. My god, when will the pounding stop? I’m standing in the shower and every drop of water feels like a BB being shot into my head. What the hell did I drink last night? Tequila? I remember something about Tequila. Yeah, that’s the easy question, now for some hard ones. Why am I waking up in a sleazy hotel room? Why was my shirt covered in blood? And why is there a duffle bag full of cash at the foot of my bed? Something tells me this is going to be one hell of a day. I’m starting to pull out of the hangover the way a pilot pulls out of a suicide dive: engine screaming, blood rushing to my head, eyes wide open and praying that I don’t die in the next few seconds. But the world’s starting to clear up. I’m starting to think. I look down at myself. I don’t seem to be cut up. So the blood on that shirt isn’t mine. That’s good news. But it does raise a whole new set of questions doesn’t it? I get dressed. It seems that I’ve been staying here for a while because I have a few extra clothes in the closet. Jeans, T-shirt, Army boots. Everything fits me like a glove. They must be my clothes. So why the hell can’t I remember how long I’ve been here? The duffle bag is blue nylon and small, only about a foot long. It’s full of neatly wrapped stacks of $100s. Looks to be about 20 or 30 of them. And look at this, under the cash is a .45 semi-automatic pistol and a box of ammo. I pick up the gun and it feels familiar, like an old friend. I check the clip, it’s full. I go through the motions of checking the gun like I’ve done it a thousand times before. OK, let’s run through what I do know. My name’s Axel. I’m in a hotel room somewhere in, ah hell, I don’t even know what city I’m in. I push back the curtains and peer outside. Vegas, I’m in Vegas. So I’ve got a bag of money, a gun, and a shirt covered with somebody else’s blood. But there’s something else. I don’t know where I am or why I’m here. I should be spooked. I mean, hell, I should be scared shitless. But I’m not. I’ve done this before. I’ve been like this before. Whatever’s happening, it’s something that I’ve been through and subconsciously I’m running on autopilot. Well that’s good. Whatever’s happening is keeping my head clear and my body ready to kick some ass. But right now I need to put something in my stomach. I’m in Vegas so I’m in the mood for a big steak and eggs. I grab my sunglasses off of the dresser, sling the duffle bag over my shoulder and step out into the sunlight. It’s already hot outside, real hot. The door slams behind me as I walk towards the street in a search for my steak and eggs. “Alright Axel”, I think to myself, ” something tells me this day is going to get interesting. If I live through the next few days I’m going to have one hell of a ‘what I did for my summer vacation’ story.”
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[/geek/writing] department
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Mon, 17 Oct 2005
I got the calendar plugin to work. Now my readers have easy access to past blog entries. I also just learned a bunch of stuff about Blosxom and how my ISP handles Perl scripts. This is cool.This story is from the
[/geek] department
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Wed, 12 Oct 2005
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Here’s where we’re trying to move
MandolinI had a chance to work in the shop this weekend and I got a lot of work done on the top of my mandolin. The scroll is carved and looks nice and I started hollowing out the inside of the top to make the inner arch. It’s so cool to here the tap tone come out of the top as it’s being carved. When only the outer arch is carved you can hear a clear, high pitch to the tap tone, but there’s also a sort of “flutter” sound underneath. As I carve the inside that flutter is going away and the tap tone pitch is coming down. It’s also getting clearer and stronger. So it’s working just like it’s suppose to. Tennessee Music Boxes
I have 4 of them done. Boy, this was a project that I started with the thought of “I can build a bunch of these really quick and make some profit”. Well, that was 2 years ago. Hey, stuff happens. It’s been a busy year. So I’m ready to put the finish on them now. One is going to my friend Connie (Yes, Connie, you’re getting one for free) ;-) And at least one is going to Acoustic Expressions Music. Carol at Acoustic Expressions also wants one of my dulcimers for the store so I’m building her a purple heart one. If you’re in San Diego then you MUST check out this store. It’s awesome. Guitars
I still have that classical guitar I’m building. The thing is, I’ve had it for so long and my skill set is WAY better now than when I started it. I look at it and almost don’t even want to touch it. But I really should finish it up. But what I really want to do is build a couple of steel string guitars next. Maybe I should just get my buddy Ed over to the shop and we can crank out some projects. So that’s the shop project status. It feels weird to have so many instruments in process (and even to have buyers for some of them). I’ve been building instruments for myself for so long that it feels weird to think “that instrument is committed to this customer and that instrument is committed to this other customer”. But hey, I’m not complaining. Monday night jam
Had another great jam at Acoustic Expressions Music on Monday. It feels like we’re starting to hit our stride a bit. This is a super-beginning jam so if you’re looking for an easy and non-threatening jam to go to then email me and I’ll give you the time and directions. But remember, even though I lead this jam, it’s up to Carol to decide how many people she wants to be there.
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[/ramblings] department
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Why doesn’t blogspot automatically give access to an RRS feed? There are lots of great blogspot blogs. In particular I’m looking at poker blogs such as: If you’re not familier with RSS feeds then go get a free RSS Reader first. Then, look for blogs with a URL for an RSS feed (You’ll see my link in the upper right corner of this page) and enter that URL into your reader. What this does for you is that it downloads the blogs for you and you can read them all in one place instead of having to surf around the net reading each page individually. It’s a pretty sweet tool. HOWEVER, Blogspot, one of the most popular blogging sites on the web, doesn’t give automatic RSS feeds. So you can’t access blogspot content in the most convenient manner via an RSS reader. So yeah, this is a total Geek Rant. Let’s all say it together: Hey Greg, Get Over It!
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[/ramblings] department
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Fri, 07 Oct 2005
The Unified Mandolin Scale Theory
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[/music] department
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As you can see by the advertisement on this blog, I’m trying to enter the Poker Stars blogger’s tournament. It’s a freeroll tournament (meaning it’s free to get in but there are actual cash prizes) but the “entry fee” is that you have to put that ad on your blog site. So we’ll see how it goes. I’ve been playing hold-em for about a year. One of our local casinos has a Sunday morning limit hold-em tournament. The entry fee is only $8 but there’s a $3000 prize pool. The prizes only go to the ten people at the final table. Usually, you just chop it ten ways and everyone gets $300. Then you donate 10% to the dealer’s tip basket and you bring home $270 for your $8 investment (and, of course, you got to have fun playing poker for a couple of hours). I’ve made it to the final table twice and I was one card away from the final table once. I was all in and had the best pair. But the river gave another player a higher pair. Had he not caught that card I’d have made it to the final table three times. On Poker Stars I mainly play in the play money games. I pushed my $1000 buy in up to about $72,000 at one point. Then I started playing no limit hold-em instead of limit hold-em and it didn’t go so well. I’m a much better limit hold-em player. But that’s the nice thing about play money. It doesn’t cost you anything to practice. So let’s see what happens. I have the Poker Stars ad on my blog. We’ll see if they offer me an entry. [edit] I just noticed that the PokerStars blog doesn’t have an RSS feed. Even I have an RSS feed for my blog. RSS is a special type of feed that presents your blog to a program called an “RSS reader” (makes sense). What that reader does is download the recent stories from a blog so you can read it offline. But what’s more convenient is that you can get all the latest stories from your favorite blogs and read them all in one place via the reader. That way you don’t have to go to a bunch of different web pages to read several different blogs. My blog’s more geeky than PokerStar’s blog. Neener neener neener :-)
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[/poker] department
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Tue, 04 Oct 2005
This is a first draft of a science fiction story I’m writing. I hope you enjoy itChapter 1
“So, after spending 12 years and 400 billion dollars you’re telling me it doesn’t work!? What the hell are you guys trying to pull?” Dr. Arron Shefield was the directory of the International Space Agency (the ISA ). At over 6 feet tall and weighing nearly 300 pounds he was an imposing man. The scientist and engineers at the agency often referred to him as “The Beast” (although never to his face). Shefield was the kind of guy who “got things done” and it was well known that his bark, as terrifying as it could be, was nowhere near as bad as his bite. “No! No! It works Mr. Sheffield. It’s just that our potential targets are … well … limited” “Sit down and explain to me why this time machine of yours ‘almost works’. Then tell me why I shouldn’t have you tarred and feathered and fed to the press. Geez-Oh-Petes! If the news feeds get a hold of this our funding will be jeopardized for years. They’ll need a scapegoat and you’re looking good in that position right now.” Dr. Michael Palmer was a brilliant scientist, theoretical physicist, and project leader for the time shifter “device”. He specialized in time theory and entropy. But right now his only thought was on how to explain to “The Beast” why his experiments weren’t failures. That, and to leave the office with his head still attached. “Well sir, the time shifter does work. And, as you know, we’ve succeeded in sending small objects forward in time several weeks. We’ve even sent a small rubber ball back in time. In fact, that one surprised us because it just showed up at the target site at one of the Moon base labs. It had a microchip in it with a message from me explaining when and where we sent it. We just had to make sure that we followed up and sent that ball, with the embedded microchip, back to the right place at the right time.” “Yes, we discussed the interesting paradox that would occur if you decided NOT to send that object back in time. So you’re telling me it works. So what’s the problem?” “The time shifter works on a difference of potential energy in the universe. Over any set amount of time the third law of thermal dynamics says that matter will tend to go from a more organized state to a less organized state.” “Much like my office staff. But please continue.” Dr. Palmer almost allowed himself a smile. Did The Beast actually just crack a joke? He thought he’d better continue.” “Yes, sir. But the third law also states that it takes less energy to go from an ordered state to a more chaotic state than it does to go from a chaotic state to a more ordered state. For example, it’s easy to toss a deck of cards into the air and scatter them, but it takes a lot more energy to gather the cards once they’re scattered and put them back in order.” “My office staff comment was intended to show that I understand. You don’t have to dumb it down for me, just tell me what the problem is.” “Yes sir. I’m sorry sir. Well, it turns out that as the mass of the object we want to send through time increases, the difference in potential energy required to move that mass through time increases exponentially. In fact, the rate of increase is, well, quite dramatic.” “How dramatic?” “From any one point in time to another there is a difference in potential energy. This is because the universe is slowly tending towards chaos. Stars use up their fuel, radioactive material decays, and so on. At any point in time there’s less energy available than there was at any point in the past. It turns out that the amount of energy it takes to send a tiny rubber ball forward or back in time requires at least a few weeks of entropy to occur. That difference in the universe’s potential energy across those two points of time is what drives the time shift device. We were quite surprised when we realized that we couldn’t send a small mass forward in time a few minutes. But we could send it a forward few weeks. The difference in energy over a few minutes wasn’t enough to push the mass through time. It took the difference in energy of a few weeks to push that mass.” “Dr. Shefield leaned back in his chair and turned it towards the floor to ceiling windows of his 25th floor office. His body language was unambiguous. All conversation would stop while he processed this information. Dr. Shefield’s great worth to the ISA was that he had the ability to take a small amount of data and from that spore of information derive the ultimate success or failure of a project with astonishing accuracy. The brain of the beast was processing and nobody in the room was about to interrupt it. After a minute or so Dr. Shefield spoke, almost whispered, his conclusion. “So. We’ve spent 400 billion dollars on time shifting research with the hope of sending a space ship and 2 crewmen through time to observe the past and the future. The theory works, we have experimental data that shows it works in practice. The question is how much energy is required to push the mass of that ship through time. And once they’ve move in time they need to get back. I’m assuming that the difference in potential energy from time point A to time point B is the same as from B to A.” “Yes sir” “So the ship would appear to us to simply vanish, and then re-appear a few seconds later at the same point.” It wasn’t a question. It was more of a statement. Dr. Palmer risked answering anyway. “That’s right sir. In fact, there’s no real reason to even have a gap of a few seconds. Once the ship is gone it can come back to the launch point at any time afterwards. The only reason for the gap of a few seconds is for safety. We don’t want the ship coming back before it’s actually left.” “Not a problem” barked Shefield. “The ship can’t leave late because it didn’t leave late. It’s the paradox issue again. Maybe it would be better to say : If the ship left late then it would know not to come back before it left.” “That’s true sir.” “So what we have is a calculation of mass to entropy. If a ten gram object needs at least 3 weeks of entropy to push through time then how much time will a 100 gram object require?” Amazing, thought Palmer. He’s cut through all the crap and figured out the root of the problem before I finished my presentation.. “According to our calculations a 100 gram object would require about 2.4 years of entropy.” Once again the room went silent. But this time The Beast’s eyes never left Dr. Palmer’s. Again, the beast whispered: “Damn.” “Palmer, you weren’t kidding when you said it was exponential. Let’s see, the ship, the 2 man crew, the supplies, the test equipment and the time shifter device to get them all back home weighs approximately 10,000 kilos.” Shefield started tapping out numbers on his desk calculator. “That can’t be!” “Dr Shefield, if the calculation that you just did matches ours you’ll notice that it’s slightly more than the total age of the known universe. “Yes, that’s exactly what I got. So that’s what you mean when you said our target is limited.” “Exactly. We obviously can’t send the ship to a point before the Big Bang.” “For a couple of reasons” Shefield interrupted. “First, we don’t know what the universe was like before the big bang. I’m not about to lose the ship and it’s crew by beaming them into the void.” It was true, thought Palmer. The beast does have a heart. “But the other reason is that there’s no potential energy. Before the big bang our theories say there was nothing. So there’s a lack of potential energy. It’s kind of like plugging in a lamp with one of the wires cut. You have energy on one wire and nothing on the other side. So the light bulb doesn’t light up.” “That’s exactly correct sir.” “So we’re left with the other end of time. Now, we can’t send them to the end of time when all the planets have crumbled, all the stars are black and every proton and electron has merged into a neutron because then we’re left with the same problem. If there’s no energy left in the universe then we’re back to the lamp with the broken wire problem. So we need a long enough time span to produce enough difference in potential energy to push the ship through time, but not too much time or they end up with no potential energy at their end and no way to get back. So I guess the question is: ‘How far before the end of time can we send these guys?’” “A few weeks sir.” “A few weeks?” “Yes sir.” This time the pause only lasted a few seconds. It only felt like hours. “Well, then you better get on it Palmer. Get yourself fitted for a space suit.” “What! ?” Palmer cried “You want ME to go? But … but … I’m a scientist, I work on theories and design. I’m not an explorer.” The beast grinned an evil grin. “Do you know of a better way to guarantee this project succeeds?”This story is from the
[/geek/scifi] department
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I had a great time last night at Acoustic Expressions last night. Carol (the owner) had invited me to come down and run a super slow “teaching jam”. San Diego already has a wonderful slow jam but she wanted something that was even less pressure. The problem was that I totally forgot that it was this Monday. I work about 3 miles from Acoustic Expressions and I had planned on bringing my guitar and mandolin to work, and then just continuing on from there to the store. But I forgot. So I drove all the way home. When I got home my lovely wife told me “You had a phone message from some lady about a jam tonight. ” Ah Crap! I had just fought the traffic to get home and now I needed to go straight back where I came from (plus 2 miles). Oh well, I made a commitment to these people and I’m not going to drop the ball. So I packed up my guitar, mandolin, banjo, and some song books and headed back out into the traffic. Luckily, it wasn’t too bad of a drive. And when I got there the rest of the group was already tuned up and ready to go. For our first ever “super slow jam” we had a mandolin player, a fiddle player, a banjo player, and me picking up whatever instrument felt right at the time. What to play, what to play? Well we started off with Sally Goodin in the key of G to make it easy for the banjo player. (It’s normally played in A but she didn’t have a capo). You know what? It didn’t sound half bad. I worked with the fiddle player on how to do little 2 note chop chords. And I worked with the banjo player on some new roll patterns and we almost sounded like a bluegrass band. Then we moved onto another 2 chord song. Hot Corn Cold Corn. I like using this tune with beginners because it has an extra 2 beats at the end. It really makes everyone listen to each other. From there we moved onto I’ll Fly Away. (from a 2 chord song to a 3 chord song). After playing the song a few times I could really hear how the group was gaining confidence. They were ready to take some chances, and they were really listening to each other. So I threw in a G7 chord right before the C. Sure, they were beginners and this pushed them a little bit to do that quick chord change, but they got it. It was starting to get late so went moved on to In The Pines, a nice little Bill Monroe waltz (and still only 3 chords). Carol wasn’t ready to take a solo yet, but she was noodling around finding some licks while the rest of us were singing and playing. You’ll get there Carol. Don’t worry, you’ll get there. So it was a nice little practice jam. We had fun and everyone learned something. I’m glad I made the drive.
This story is from the
[/music/jams] department
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Sat, 01 Oct 2005
I’ve worked as a computer programmer for about 11 years now. Actually, I should amend that. I’ve been called a computer programmer for 11 years, but for the past 3 years or so I’ve not done much actual coding. It seems that my employer sees me as a manager so I’ve been writing technical specifications, documenting test cases, working with server configurations, researching security options, dealing with gawd-aweful vendors and so on. In other words, doing a lot of stuff that has little, if anything to do with programming. Wow, I really need to do something to keep up my Geek street cred. Many years ago when I was in school (a subject for a future rant I assure you) I wrote a music teaching program. You could enter in a stringed instrument tuning and it would calculate chord and scale positions. It was kind of cool.. I wrote it in C++ for Windows using MFC for the GUI and it worked well enough to help me continue my 4.0 GPA and graduate Summa Cum Laud. So, as a way to keep my chops up and to build something that would also work in Linux, I started re-writing the project in Java. That project is on Source Forge as the project Tapper. Originally it was written as a tool for learning The Chapman Stick but it’s now become a more generic stringed instrument tool. The problem is that, like many Source Forge projects, I was really into the project at the beginning, but as work and life took up more of my time I let it die off. Part of that lack of interest comes from the fact that I haven’t been playing The Stick for the past 2 years. I’m going more towards the acoustic music scene again. I’ve been playing a lot of acoustic guitar (fingerstyle and bluegrass), mandolin, and banjo. So my interest in a Stick teaching tool has subsided. However, I now find myself longing for a technical challenge. So I’d like to start working on Tapper again. However, I also started a new project which I call “Lambada Mail”. It’s an email client that has some serious anti-spam filtering integrated into it. Now, I know that there are several free email clients out there that already do this (In fact, I use Mozilla Thunderbird which already does most of what I want my email client to do). But I still like the idea of writing the program just to keep my mind sharp. Plus, there are some usage issues with Thunderbird that I’d like to do differently. So yeah, I’m still a geek. So if I don’t get my geek fix at work I come home and give myself a project to learn something new. In fact, this blog is one of those projects. I’ve never programmed in Perl before and I’ve not done much CSS work so I decided to combine those two projects and get Blosxom installed (my blogging tool which was written in Perl) and to build this blog page using Cascading Style Sheets. It’s been fun. So that’s a partial explanation of my current Geek projects. When we move up north I’ll have some more time to explore these programming projects and that’s when I’d be really open to bringing in other programmers to my Source Forge projects. It will be fun to actually write code again. It’s just odd that in a quest to do more programming I have to leave my programmer’s job. Oh well, life is full of those kinds of surprises.This story is from the
[/geek] department
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