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peterbirksThe Bok Bar in Blandford Street isn't South African, which surprised me. In fact, it's Thai. However, there was fake zebra-skin and leopard-skin covering on the seats. Perhaps this was a kind of hedging your bets, or perhaps it had once been a South African bar, but they couldn't make it pay.
Anyhoo, I made my way there to meet Mr Ward and other poker gliterati for an evening of hilarity (always guaranteed if The Youngster is going to be there, and drinking). The good Doctor Channing was the only one in attendance when I arrived, but we were soon joined by Gryko, Mr and Mrs Purle, the Youngster, and Allan "Titmus" Engel. Mr Ward telephoned that he and Keith Hawkins (who had both been to the QPR-Burnley game that afternoon) might be a bit late, because "he was trying to get Keith to finish his drink". As excuses for lateness go, this one was just about as unbelievable as it gets, and we immediately assumed that it was a coup by Andy to dodge his promised spending spree (as a result of a nice $60K payday in Tunica). However, Mr Ward eventually appeared and we were all treated, as promised.
The good doctor told one of his staggeringly embellished tales of other poker players -- this one involving Murray Brown, a tuxedo, a sports car, an attractive woman, and a petrol station near Gatwick on a Sunday morning.
Perhaps I should have driven up, because then I could have joined either the Miros group (heading to the Gutshot) or the Gryko group (heading to the Vic), but instead I had to rush for my train. But I did manage to take the Noble tables for a few bucks before going to bed.
Here's some pix... pleasing in the sense that I now know there is at least one person in the world of whom it is harder to take a decent picture than me. Step forward Mr Ward.
Late in the evening, Mr Young tries to work out how to use my camera and (almost) succeeds. I have no idea why I look like a rabbit frozen in headlights. Perhaps I'm scared that the Youngster will drop the camers.
Mr Hawkins and Mr Engel fail to realize that the first flash was red-eye reduction, resulting in Hawkins vanishing from view and Mr Engel looking away. I dunno, do these people know nothing?
Richard Gryko shows how to drink in stereo (Tequila in one glass, vodka and Red Bull in the other, I believe), while Alice (Mrs Miros) checks how the ice is progressing in her Singapore Sling
Allan Engel (Titmus) points at the guilty party, sticking to J2O in preparation for later play at the Vic. At about 10.30 he snuck out for 20 minutes or so. I suspect it was to put his name on the list at the Vic....
Miros in smirking mode.
Overall, a great evening, capped at the end by the Youngster attributing the reason for his moral crusades in countries "far away about which we know nothing" to the fact that, whenever there is a civil war somewhere in the world, his barber in Fulham changes.
Or something like that.
Many thanks to Mr Ward for an excellent treat. I really ought to get you guys round to dinner one Saturday evening, if only to learn of the current state of Mr Young's barber.
++++++++++++
And, finally, here's a headline from today's China Daily referring to an Associated Press story.
Clinton promises to end war if elected
Somehow, I suspect that this isn't quite what they meant to say. But, as election promises go, "Peace on earth" is a fairly good one.
Anyhoo, I made my way there to meet Mr Ward and other poker gliterati for an evening of hilarity (always guaranteed if The Youngster is going to be there, and drinking). The good Doctor Channing was the only one in attendance when I arrived, but we were soon joined by Gryko, Mr and Mrs Purle, the Youngster, and Allan "Titmus" Engel. Mr Ward telephoned that he and Keith Hawkins (who had both been to the QPR-Burnley game that afternoon) might be a bit late, because "he was trying to get Keith to finish his drink". As excuses for lateness go, this one was just about as unbelievable as it gets, and we immediately assumed that it was a coup by Andy to dodge his promised spending spree (as a result of a nice $60K payday in Tunica). However, Mr Ward eventually appeared and we were all treated, as promised.
The good doctor told one of his staggeringly embellished tales of other poker players -- this one involving Murray Brown, a tuxedo, a sports car, an attractive woman, and a petrol station near Gatwick on a Sunday morning.
Perhaps I should have driven up, because then I could have joined either the Miros group (heading to the Gutshot) or the Gryko group (heading to the Vic), but instead I had to rush for my train. But I did manage to take the Noble tables for a few bucks before going to bed.
Here's some pix... pleasing in the sense that I now know there is at least one person in the world of whom it is harder to take a decent picture than me. Step forward Mr Ward.
Late in the evening, Mr Young tries to work out how to use my camera and (almost) succeeds. I have no idea why I look like a rabbit frozen in headlights. Perhaps I'm scared that the Youngster will drop the camers.
Mr Hawkins and Mr Engel fail to realize that the first flash was red-eye reduction, resulting in Hawkins vanishing from view and Mr Engel looking away. I dunno, do these people know nothing?
Richard Gryko shows how to drink in stereo (Tequila in one glass, vodka and Red Bull in the other, I believe), while Alice (Mrs Miros) checks how the ice is progressing in her Singapore Sling
Allan Engel (Titmus) points at the guilty party, sticking to J2O in preparation for later play at the Vic. At about 10.30 he snuck out for 20 minutes or so. I suspect it was to put his name on the list at the Vic....
Miros in smirking mode.
Overall, a great evening, capped at the end by the Youngster attributing the reason for his moral crusades in countries "far away about which we know nothing" to the fact that, whenever there is a civil war somewhere in the world, his barber in Fulham changes.
Or something like that.
Many thanks to Mr Ward for an excellent treat. I really ought to get you guys round to dinner one Saturday evening, if only to learn of the current state of Mr Young's barber.
++++++++++++
And, finally, here's a headline from today's China Daily referring to an Associated Press story.
Clinton promises to end war if elected
Somehow, I suspect that this isn't quite what they meant to say. But, as election promises go, "Peace on earth" is a fairly good one.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 08:46 pm (UTC)2. That looks like no Thai place I've ever been in.
3. I really fucking miss Noble.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 09:47 pm (UTC)2) Yes, the place does look like a South African bar that has changed hands in the previous week, doesn't it?
3) There aren't many games of limit available at decent stakes anymore, but the short-handed games do seem to be of a weaker standard than I see on UB, Stars or Full Tilt.
PJ
no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 11:30 pm (UTC)The softest games on Noble are the SNGs. Just sick.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-05 01:41 am (UTC)My point about events in far away countries affecting my choice of barber makes perfect sense, but I'll explain why later. Great to see you and thanks for giving me your phone number. You will regret that!
DY
J20
Date: 2007-02-05 07:27 am (UTC)Photos?
Date: 2007-02-05 02:52 pm (UTC)-- Jonathan
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-05 04:38 pm (UTC)Ignoring the Irish photos which, for various reasons, were made "Friends Only", I'm not sure why you can't see the pictures.
I assume that you are aware that the words between the brackets "expand" the post. This is so that people who do not want to see the pictures or who have slow connections do not have to suffer long download times.
So, let's assume that you have clicked on "The Bok Bar".
What do you now see? Just text, or a blank piece of screen the size of the picture but with a small red cross in the top left corner? If the former, I have no idea what is happening. If the latter, what happens when you right-click and then click on "Properties" from the menu generated? Does a link to www.tinypic appear?
If it does, try opening that link on its own. The picture should appear separately.
If none of that works, I'm stumped. No-one else seems to have mentioned any problems, although my IE 6 no longer displays the codes that I need to type in on Blogger in order to be able to post a comment, so I have suffered a vaguely similar problem.
PJ
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-05 05:22 pm (UTC)-- Jonathan
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-05 07:29 pm (UTC)I use TinyPic rather than LiveJournal's own picture library, so they are external links. Perhaps your anti-virus software is blocking external picture links, but that would have the impact of blocking nearly all advertisements on web sites, since these are third-party links. Perhaps the link to www.tinypic.com is blocked for some reason, but I really can't understand why no link would show at all.
PJ
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-05 07:57 pm (UTC)-- Jonathan (http://tinypic.com)
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-05 07:59 pm (UTC)-- Jonathan
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-05 08:27 pm (UTC)The top picture in this set is http://i5.tinypic.com/2rnkeir.jpg, the second is http://i18.tinypic.com/4gp01ly.jpg, and so it goes on.
It looks as if the link is just generating www.tinypic.com for you when you go to LiveJournal.
This kind of webophonics is way beyond my ken, and I don't know anyone sufficiently aware of the intricacies of Internet browsers who might know what the problem is.
You could e-mail LiveJournal about this, because they seem to be keen enough on the techie side....
Pete
PJ
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-05 08:35 pm (UTC)My source code runs like this for, say, the Titmus picture: (replace right square brackets with right-angle brackets)
<a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"]<img src="http://i19.tinypic.com/30kc4k8.jpg" border="0" alt="The legendary Titmus"]</a] So, I have the "target="_blank" limiter, followed by the img src description. I thought that this was relatively standard HTML.... PJ
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-06 05:32 am (UTC)-- Jonathan
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-06 12:44 pm (UTC)Since we know that it isn't browser-specific, four other possibilities spring to mind, although it might still be best to e-mail LiveJournal and see what they say.
1) Is it user-specific. In other words, have you made any changes to the default settings in both Firefox and IE, and could these be causing the problem.
2) Is it location -specific. Does the same thing happen at work and at home.
3) Is it ISP specific. Does your ISP block tinypic links for a reason?
4) Is it country-specific. Does Spain block tinypic links?
I can't think of anything else off-hand, although doubtless there is something that I have missed.
PJ
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-06 07:47 pm (UTC)I think I've left my browsers at their default settings -- especially Internet Explorer, as I rarely use it.
I can't readily check at work because I rarely go to work... um, I work from home, basically.
I get the same problem using Ana's computer (same ADSL connection).
-- Jonathan
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-07 07:13 am (UTC)So, apparently ZoneAlarm is causing the problem. But it doesn't help much to know that, because I have no idea why ZoneAlarm is doing it or how I can tell it to stop doing it, and I'm not going to keep turning off the whole suite for this little problem. I don't think I've experienced this problem on any other Web site.
Maybe I'll try researching into ZoneAlarm options someday if I find the time and the energy.
-- Jonathan
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-07 10:18 am (UTC)Yes, that would be a nuisance. However, ZoneAlarm is quite a common installation, so it's strange this problem hasn't emerged elsewhere.
I don't have ZoneAlarm myself, but Norton caused so many problems with my home computer (mainly with poker site accesses) that I switched it off completely.
"False positives" are the bane of security systems. It's all very well them saying that they catch 100% of attacks, but that's not much good if they generate false positives. ZoneAlarm had a good reputation here, which makes things even odder.
The setting that you would want to switch off would obviously be something to do with third-party links to jpegs, or pictures in any format. However, if it's anything like Norton, you can input specific "exceptions" (a kind of "white-listing") and perhaps if you can find this and put in www.tinypic.com, that would solve the problem.
PJ
Re: Photos?
Date: 2007-02-07 12:13 pm (UTC)-- Jonathan
A good night
Date: 2007-02-05 06:01 pm (UTC)A very enjoyable evening all round. The undoubted highlight for me was the revelation that David is learning Arabic at evening classes. "I WILL be of service to my country. If it needs me."
Camel
Re: A good night
Date: 2007-02-05 07:31 pm (UTC)Yes, I was just about to leave when the Youngster came out with that line. In response, I think, to Miros's query on what he actually meant to do with his Arabic.
Actually, DY's point made sense, in that the US Army is reduced to employing Arabs as their interpreters -- hardly the shrewdest of moves if you want to be sure of what the other guy is saying.
PJ
Re: A good night
Date: 2007-02-05 08:04 pm (UTC)http://www.army.mod.uk/dsl/language_wings/arabic/index.htm#arabic
yep, nearly four years into our mission in Iraq and all it says is 'Under construction'. Pathetic.
But it's not all about war. The West has allies and friends in the middle east. Knowing who is who requires some understanding of language and culture. I also live close to an area of Fulham with lots of Arabic shops. That's rather the point I was trying to make before. You see I also speak German (reasonably, not fluent) but Germany is miles and miles away, whereas the Middle East is on my doorstep. I said on my site a few years ago that Portuguese should be taught instead of French in our schools. Only today it's been announced that the government wants to push Mandarin, Urdu and Arabic instead of French. I applaud the fact that they have had the courage to recognise that these languages are far more important.
I do recommend that people learn other languages. I have found it very interesting. The second term starts tomorrow and I can't wait.
DY