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Testament To Youth In Verse
Jan. 2nd, 2007 10:29 amAnd a Happy New Year to you all, with, I suspect, a good many of you reading blogs the only time that you normally read blogs — when you are at work and should be doing something more useful or, at least, rather more related to what your company pays you for (or, in Geoff's case, what you pay yourself for).
I've spent three days about as offline as I have been in the past five years, only checking for e-mails. No poker whatsoever for three days, which is also probably my longest break away from the game for five years. Even when Cat came to stay in May I would be up earlier than her in the morning so that I could crack off 100 hands or so. This time round, well, I just couldn't be bothered.
I'm not sure if I have missed it or not. On total balance, I would have to say, probably not. If the Youngster can say that if he had a big win, he would quit the game, then I sometimes feel, hell, I can do the same, right now.
But there's still the old part of me that loves it. I sometimes wish that I could do things moderately. But, then again, perhaps a certain obsessiveness is probably required to win at poker if you play online.
+++++
We went to the Tate Modern on Saturday, the first time that I have been there since around 2000, which really is a dreadful sin, given that I go past it on the train most weekdays. Just seeing the Rothko Four Seasons pictures again makes the trip worthwhile. I've seen even the most die-hard anti-abstract anti-modern anti-art person be affected by these paintings.
Lunch at Studio 6 on Gallery Wharf was, I thought, excellent. The home-made beefburger was real yummy and the chips were superb. Last night we had dinner at Cafe Rouge in Blackheath and, although the service was exemplary, and the food was okay, it still seemed a bit overpriced for what is, in effect, a bistro. Restaurant prices, bistro look.
We went over to Brian Creese's on New Year's Eve to see Brian (obviously) and Amanda, plus Brian's son Matthew (18 on December 30....) and Amanda's daughter Tracy. Tracy's tales of the goings-on in a certain electricity company's call centre defied belief. Apparently one of their more recent aquatic-pun-motif campaigns was "Whale Done" (geddit?), featuring, I think, DiDi the whale (or was it DiDi the porpoise?) and everytime you converted someone to direct debit you got to feed DiDi (direct debit, DD, brilliant....).
If this is the way the consultants push the motivational bods at my company, please shoot me.
Anyhoo, it struck me that a good way to judge how effective sales staff were would be to give them some kind of Tamagotchi Duck. You put this on the desk and, every time a sale was made, the menber of the sales staff who was responsible was given a code which could be used to "feed" the Tamagotchi Duck. That way you didn't have to look at sales staff figures at the end of every month. You just looked to see who had a dead duck on their desk.
Excellent sales could be matched by the duck marching up and down the desk, quacking in a triumphant fashion.
++++++++++++
I might get round to the annual figures later today. Life is busy and I'm driving Cat back to Stansted this afternoon. As will be shown, I've felt it to be a disappointing year. I'd quite like to "go" for $12K this year, just to see if it can be done at my "lower" levels. But am I willing to put in as much time? I dunno. Other things that I would "like" to do include focusing on MTTs, converting to NL, and playing at a higher level for Limit. I can't do all four of these targets, and deciding which one to go for is not easy.
I've spent three days about as offline as I have been in the past five years, only checking for e-mails. No poker whatsoever for three days, which is also probably my longest break away from the game for five years. Even when Cat came to stay in May I would be up earlier than her in the morning so that I could crack off 100 hands or so. This time round, well, I just couldn't be bothered.
I'm not sure if I have missed it or not. On total balance, I would have to say, probably not. If the Youngster can say that if he had a big win, he would quit the game, then I sometimes feel, hell, I can do the same, right now.
But there's still the old part of me that loves it. I sometimes wish that I could do things moderately. But, then again, perhaps a certain obsessiveness is probably required to win at poker if you play online.
+++++
We went to the Tate Modern on Saturday, the first time that I have been there since around 2000, which really is a dreadful sin, given that I go past it on the train most weekdays. Just seeing the Rothko Four Seasons pictures again makes the trip worthwhile. I've seen even the most die-hard anti-abstract anti-modern anti-art person be affected by these paintings.
Lunch at Studio 6 on Gallery Wharf was, I thought, excellent. The home-made beefburger was real yummy and the chips were superb. Last night we had dinner at Cafe Rouge in Blackheath and, although the service was exemplary, and the food was okay, it still seemed a bit overpriced for what is, in effect, a bistro. Restaurant prices, bistro look.
We went over to Brian Creese's on New Year's Eve to see Brian (obviously) and Amanda, plus Brian's son Matthew (18 on December 30....) and Amanda's daughter Tracy. Tracy's tales of the goings-on in a certain electricity company's call centre defied belief. Apparently one of their more recent aquatic-pun-motif campaigns was "Whale Done" (geddit?), featuring, I think, DiDi the whale (or was it DiDi the porpoise?) and everytime you converted someone to direct debit you got to feed DiDi (direct debit, DD, brilliant....).
If this is the way the consultants push the motivational bods at my company, please shoot me.
Anyhoo, it struck me that a good way to judge how effective sales staff were would be to give them some kind of Tamagotchi Duck. You put this on the desk and, every time a sale was made, the menber of the sales staff who was responsible was given a code which could be used to "feed" the Tamagotchi Duck. That way you didn't have to look at sales staff figures at the end of every month. You just looked to see who had a dead duck on their desk.
Excellent sales could be matched by the duck marching up and down the desk, quacking in a triumphant fashion.
++++++++++++
I might get round to the annual figures later today. Life is busy and I'm driving Cat back to Stansted this afternoon. As will be shown, I've felt it to be a disappointing year. I'd quite like to "go" for $12K this year, just to see if it can be done at my "lower" levels. But am I willing to put in as much time? I dunno. Other things that I would "like" to do include focusing on MTTs, converting to NL, and playing at a higher level for Limit. I can't do all four of these targets, and deciding which one to go for is not easy.
