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Times past
Jul. 17th, 2012 02:37 pmAll the stuff that used to go into blogs now goes up on Facebook, or even on Twitter. We all know that. And so the need to write a blog fades away, until you suddenly realize that you haven't written an entry for six months or more, and you begin to wonder what you ever found to write about. And the answer is, of course, all of that stuff that you "threw away" in one-liners on Twitter or two-sentencers on Facebook.
Over the past six months I've become somewhat disenamoured with Facebook and (except for certain purposes) almost hostile to Twitter. However, the latter does at least have the redeeming feature of being a brilliant "as it happens" news feed. Peston this morning related the comments of Turner (then head of FSA) and King with an immediacy that I for one found very useful.
Twitter is not so great when people use it as a substitute for multi-player instant messenger. Even if you, the reader, are interested, it's often impossible to work out what's going on, because "view conversation" only answers part of the story. So you get conversations filling up your timeline that are obviously fascinating to the participants but which aren't to, er, anyone else.
D-list celebs (particularly comedians) are the worst offenders here. Not only do they go on forever in the intrinsic belief that they are incredibly funny, but they do so on topics of such staggering middlebrow tat that you despair for the future. (Speaking of which, I saw three adverts on TV yesterday on the new channel 747 or whatever it is. Voiceovers from Robert Webb, then Miranda Hart, and then some other comic whose voice I knew but couldn't quite identify, for products so horrifically sad that you felt that Alexei Sayle must be turning in his grave, if he were dead. Hmm, perhaps the third voiceover WAS Alexei Sayle? Of course, this new embracement of "show me the money" is all the fault of Ben Elton, Rowan Atkinson and Mel Smith, who decided that making a lot of money might be fun after all. Even the most liberal I'm-for-all-things-trendy comic is eagerly keen to sell his or her wares for corporate evenings at ridiculous prices. I vaguely recall Sue Perkins pushing for eight grand or something. I mean, perhaps she'd donate it all to one of her beloved causes, but I somehow doubt it (and I LIKE Sue Perkins).
Added to that of course is that, not only do they believe that they are intrinsically funny, but they are also bedevilled by that imp on their other shoulder saying you're rubbish really, and one day you'll be found out". That leads to an excessively thin skin. So, everything is out there in the open, twittorrhea on a Saturday night, and anyone who says "oh. shut the fuck up for goodness sake" gets told to piss off very quickly. It's a bit like being at a party where the celebs are dominating the conversation, and if you comment that they aren't really all that interesting, they say that in that case you had better leave. As if it's their party. Fuck me, the day that one of those people actually spends some of their own money on entertainment will be the day I die.
Anyhoo, I digress.
I've spent the past few weeks since I got back from Bermuda training hard, playing cards, watching TV, and, finally, getting very ill.
I had a storming June, winning nearly a grand (quite a lot for the stakes I am playing and the hands I put in). That brought me back from a $700 deficit at the end of March to an $800 profit at the end of June. Then July started horribly, and I lost $300 of it back by the 7th. Since then I've ground away hard and I've got back to in front. I think that I am playing well, and I'm actually up in "live play" on both Stars and Party. I think most people would agree that being up in live play Full Ring Hold Em on Stars these days is darned tough. Well, it's always been tough. I've spotted a few chinks in the armour of the hundreds of grinders. I've worked out that the best games aren't necessarily those with the highest VPIP or the highest average pot size. And, most radically, I've stripped down from 100BB sitdown to 60BB sitdown. I could go into the technical reasons why this has worked for me (it might be wrong for other types of player), but the fact is that 60BB has the merit of being an unfamiliar stake for most regulars to see. They are used to full stacks and short stacks, but not the 60BB stack. I got the idea from King of Milan, a 16-24 table multi-tabler from China who is a big winner. He's also got a number of other techniques that I have adapted, while I've got a few of my own that I don't think he knows. Most of these are in the CO/Button/Blinds arena.
The getting ill bit last Friday wasn't much fun. A really bad stomach bug knocked me out on Friday evening, and by Sunday afternoon I was six pounds lighter in weight. The dehydration through chronic diarrhoea then stabilized, but still, five days later, my stomach hasn't settled, and my diet is extremely restricted (I've had only water as a drink, no dairy, nothing spicy). Indeed it seems to have consisted mainly of lightly margarined toast (for a day or so it was unbuttered white toast). A visit to the doctor will presumably be called for if the stomach doesn't settle down soon. Oh, and I burst a small blood vessel underneath my eye through etching so much. Fun.
++++++++
I've very much enjoyed "Line of Duty", one of the new cop series. And Branagh in the new English-language Wallander is watchable, although I get irritated by his attempts to play someone who can't express his emotions. One more look on Branagh looking internally stressed and remaining silent and I think I will puke. Yes, Ken, we know you can act, we gave you a knighthood. But Guinness was a class apart when it came to that kind of thing. Don't try to match him.
The point is, Branagh overacts the silences. I think he associates overacting with melodrama and waving your hands about and shouting a lot. Not necessarily so. You can overact as well those silences, stares, the "is he about to say something....... oh ..... is he? ..... oh .... no, he isn't."
I've recorded all of Blackout, with Christopher Eccleston. That's the next one on the list.
____________________
Over the past six months I've become somewhat disenamoured with Facebook and (except for certain purposes) almost hostile to Twitter. However, the latter does at least have the redeeming feature of being a brilliant "as it happens" news feed. Peston this morning related the comments of Turner (then head of FSA) and King with an immediacy that I for one found very useful.
Twitter is not so great when people use it as a substitute for multi-player instant messenger. Even if you, the reader, are interested, it's often impossible to work out what's going on, because "view conversation" only answers part of the story. So you get conversations filling up your timeline that are obviously fascinating to the participants but which aren't to, er, anyone else.
D-list celebs (particularly comedians) are the worst offenders here. Not only do they go on forever in the intrinsic belief that they are incredibly funny, but they do so on topics of such staggering middlebrow tat that you despair for the future. (Speaking of which, I saw three adverts on TV yesterday on the new channel 747 or whatever it is. Voiceovers from Robert Webb, then Miranda Hart, and then some other comic whose voice I knew but couldn't quite identify, for products so horrifically sad that you felt that Alexei Sayle must be turning in his grave, if he were dead. Hmm, perhaps the third voiceover WAS Alexei Sayle? Of course, this new embracement of "show me the money" is all the fault of Ben Elton, Rowan Atkinson and Mel Smith, who decided that making a lot of money might be fun after all. Even the most liberal I'm-for-all-things-trendy comic is eagerly keen to sell his or her wares for corporate evenings at ridiculous prices. I vaguely recall Sue Perkins pushing for eight grand or something. I mean, perhaps she'd donate it all to one of her beloved causes, but I somehow doubt it (and I LIKE Sue Perkins).
Added to that of course is that, not only do they believe that they are intrinsically funny, but they are also bedevilled by that imp on their other shoulder saying you're rubbish really, and one day you'll be found out". That leads to an excessively thin skin. So, everything is out there in the open, twittorrhea on a Saturday night, and anyone who says "oh. shut the fuck up for goodness sake" gets told to piss off very quickly. It's a bit like being at a party where the celebs are dominating the conversation, and if you comment that they aren't really all that interesting, they say that in that case you had better leave. As if it's their party. Fuck me, the day that one of those people actually spends some of their own money on entertainment will be the day I die.
Anyhoo, I digress.
I've spent the past few weeks since I got back from Bermuda training hard, playing cards, watching TV, and, finally, getting very ill.
I had a storming June, winning nearly a grand (quite a lot for the stakes I am playing and the hands I put in). That brought me back from a $700 deficit at the end of March to an $800 profit at the end of June. Then July started horribly, and I lost $300 of it back by the 7th. Since then I've ground away hard and I've got back to in front. I think that I am playing well, and I'm actually up in "live play" on both Stars and Party. I think most people would agree that being up in live play Full Ring Hold Em on Stars these days is darned tough. Well, it's always been tough. I've spotted a few chinks in the armour of the hundreds of grinders. I've worked out that the best games aren't necessarily those with the highest VPIP or the highest average pot size. And, most radically, I've stripped down from 100BB sitdown to 60BB sitdown. I could go into the technical reasons why this has worked for me (it might be wrong for other types of player), but the fact is that 60BB has the merit of being an unfamiliar stake for most regulars to see. They are used to full stacks and short stacks, but not the 60BB stack. I got the idea from King of Milan, a 16-24 table multi-tabler from China who is a big winner. He's also got a number of other techniques that I have adapted, while I've got a few of my own that I don't think he knows. Most of these are in the CO/Button/Blinds arena.
The getting ill bit last Friday wasn't much fun. A really bad stomach bug knocked me out on Friday evening, and by Sunday afternoon I was six pounds lighter in weight. The dehydration through chronic diarrhoea then stabilized, but still, five days later, my stomach hasn't settled, and my diet is extremely restricted (I've had only water as a drink, no dairy, nothing spicy). Indeed it seems to have consisted mainly of lightly margarined toast (for a day or so it was unbuttered white toast). A visit to the doctor will presumably be called for if the stomach doesn't settle down soon. Oh, and I burst a small blood vessel underneath my eye through etching so much. Fun.
++++++++
I've very much enjoyed "Line of Duty", one of the new cop series. And Branagh in the new English-language Wallander is watchable, although I get irritated by his attempts to play someone who can't express his emotions. One more look on Branagh looking internally stressed and remaining silent and I think I will puke. Yes, Ken, we know you can act, we gave you a knighthood. But Guinness was a class apart when it came to that kind of thing. Don't try to match him.
The point is, Branagh overacts the silences. I think he associates overacting with melodrama and waving your hands about and shouting a lot. Not necessarily so. You can overact as well those silences, stares, the "is he about to say something....... oh ..... is he? ..... oh .... no, he isn't."
I've recorded all of Blackout, with Christopher Eccleston. That's the next one on the list.
____________________
