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Borgen was a bit of a curate's egg by the end of the first series. In he middle section I felt that it lost its way and that I was really only watching a soap with pretensions (and good actors). But by the end it got a grip and became solid drama again. However, the last episode left things hanging rather more than I would like. If a programme is good enough (which Borgen is) you don't need to leave the audience in suspense waiting for the new series.
I've also caught up with the second series of Downton Abbey, which has turned into the worst sort of costume drama. Creaky plots, creakier characters whose motives are chopped and changed to suit plot devides. Beautiful to look at, of course, but even the music has fallen by the wayside, with many of the scenes now being pure cliché. Will watch the Christmas special, but won't bother with series 3.
Mulholland Drive is the latest arrival from LoveFilm, although the nice surprise was spoilt by an email from Lovefilm telling me that it was on its way. I've wanted to see this film for ages. I'm probably one of the few defenders of The Lost Highway one of Lynch's more incomprehensible efforts. But I must have watched it three times and liked it more each time. Bill Pullman is brilliant, and the appearance of Marilyn Manson only adds to the sense of gothic insanity.
The poker this year is kind of heading in the direction that it did last year -- sideways. I thought that I might get a bit of a breakthrough with an at-last cash in the Party Poker PAS/RTR freeroll. As I've mentioned before, this sort-of consolation for the ending of RakeTheRake rakeback deals has an EV of about $50, and a first prize of $1.5k with only 95 runners. But I just never seem to cash in it, despite playing about 30 of them. Felt that I did nothing wrong last night (even threw in a couple of successful resteal shoves with KQo and 54s in the big blind), but then, with 28 players left (13 paid) and 9 big blinds at 125/250 with a 25 ante or something like that (9 big blinds wasn't that much less than the average), my AJo shove in the cut-off was called by TT in the big blind. No luck and IGHN. Sigh.
IN the cash games I've played only 22,000 hands, all at $50 buy-in, and I'm the grand sum of $10 down, or $10 up, I forget which. Bonuses have pushed me into a double-digit profit, but it's all rather inconsequential.
++++
I suffered my second training injury today -- a lower back strain from a 155kg dead lift. Perhaps I should have bailed out, but I'd psyched myself up so much to making this lift that I couldn't countenance failure. Looking at the bright side, this kind of injury is just inflamed soft tissue, and nurofen plus rest then plus light exercising can get you back to proper fitness in three weeks or so. Secondly, it showed that my mental strength was there -- to the extent that it overruled my physical limitation.
However, it looks like the 180kg deadlift will be coming later rather than sooner. Am in a fair bit of discomfort at the moment, but some nurofen and some rest when I get home should work wonders. And no back spasms, so that's a plus too.
These things are always a risk if you go for big single reps, and 155kg is pretty good when compared with my current weight of about 76kg. A ratio of 2.25 would get me to 170kg, or I could lose some fat and improve the ratio that way. Whichever way I look at it, though 180kg will require some increase in muscle.
Dollar-euro strikes me as rangebound at the moment, $1.30 to $1.32. I don't like having an open position when important decisions in "the real world" migh change underlying sentiment. It's hard to trade ranges unless you are full-time intra-day trading. I might take out a bit of a long position if $1.30 is reached, but we're really only talking about ducking and diving for pennies, here. These kind of trades you are happy if you are right 65% of the time, so you need a bigger bankroll and, to make a decent profit, a bigger stake.
_____________
I've also caught up with the second series of Downton Abbey, which has turned into the worst sort of costume drama. Creaky plots, creakier characters whose motives are chopped and changed to suit plot devides. Beautiful to look at, of course, but even the music has fallen by the wayside, with many of the scenes now being pure cliché. Will watch the Christmas special, but won't bother with series 3.
Mulholland Drive is the latest arrival from LoveFilm, although the nice surprise was spoilt by an email from Lovefilm telling me that it was on its way. I've wanted to see this film for ages. I'm probably one of the few defenders of The Lost Highway one of Lynch's more incomprehensible efforts. But I must have watched it three times and liked it more each time. Bill Pullman is brilliant, and the appearance of Marilyn Manson only adds to the sense of gothic insanity.
The poker this year is kind of heading in the direction that it did last year -- sideways. I thought that I might get a bit of a breakthrough with an at-last cash in the Party Poker PAS/RTR freeroll. As I've mentioned before, this sort-of consolation for the ending of RakeTheRake rakeback deals has an EV of about $50, and a first prize of $1.5k with only 95 runners. But I just never seem to cash in it, despite playing about 30 of them. Felt that I did nothing wrong last night (even threw in a couple of successful resteal shoves with KQo and 54s in the big blind), but then, with 28 players left (13 paid) and 9 big blinds at 125/250 with a 25 ante or something like that (9 big blinds wasn't that much less than the average), my AJo shove in the cut-off was called by TT in the big blind. No luck and IGHN. Sigh.
IN the cash games I've played only 22,000 hands, all at $50 buy-in, and I'm the grand sum of $10 down, or $10 up, I forget which. Bonuses have pushed me into a double-digit profit, but it's all rather inconsequential.
++++
I suffered my second training injury today -- a lower back strain from a 155kg dead lift. Perhaps I should have bailed out, but I'd psyched myself up so much to making this lift that I couldn't countenance failure. Looking at the bright side, this kind of injury is just inflamed soft tissue, and nurofen plus rest then plus light exercising can get you back to proper fitness in three weeks or so. Secondly, it showed that my mental strength was there -- to the extent that it overruled my physical limitation.
However, it looks like the 180kg deadlift will be coming later rather than sooner. Am in a fair bit of discomfort at the moment, but some nurofen and some rest when I get home should work wonders. And no back spasms, so that's a plus too.
These things are always a risk if you go for big single reps, and 155kg is pretty good when compared with my current weight of about 76kg. A ratio of 2.25 would get me to 170kg, or I could lose some fat and improve the ratio that way. Whichever way I look at it, though 180kg will require some increase in muscle.
Dollar-euro strikes me as rangebound at the moment, $1.30 to $1.32. I don't like having an open position when important decisions in "the real world" migh change underlying sentiment. It's hard to trade ranges unless you are full-time intra-day trading. I might take out a bit of a long position if $1.30 is reached, but we're really only talking about ducking and diving for pennies, here. These kind of trades you are happy if you are right 65% of the time, so you need a bigger bankroll and, to make a decent profit, a bigger stake.
_____________
