2008 #36 - 23 miles around

Yeah i'm a day late again. It doesn't matter!

Last Wednesday I finally returned to Rutland Water and cycled the entire circuit of 23 miles including Peninsula. Not having done this since 2002 I wasn't sure how hard I was going to find it. The answer was - hard. But not too hard. It gave me a headache even though I hydrated myself well throughout. That's more about the angle of the neck when leaning down holding handlebars whilst looking up. It's what you're supposed to do, but for me at least, it hurts. Every chance I get I let go of the handlebars and sit up straight. People i'm sure think i'm posing at how good I am at riding with no hands (and I am awesome) but it's more a comfort break. I'll say right now this is the only exercise I did this week, so don't expect number 8 to be anything special, however 23 miles easily tops three of whatever I would normally be doing, so i'll count it. In fact maybe i'll call that recapped and count backwards from 7.

7. I have a glimmer in my mind, a glow of happiness I am getting from playing around with web technologies, and weirdly, Photoshop. Much like the guitar, I installed and gave up using Photoshop about 3 times before, reverting to Paint Shop Pro. I always liked PSP as a basic editor, then it hit a sprint in version 5 when it introduced layers and became viable for serious web work, which at the time I was very interested in. As the years pass PSP has got a lot more complicated and harder to use, though I have managed to keep up with how to do what I used to do in there. The result here is that now when I try to use Photoshop it seems much easier. It's still better, and probably always will be, but now I think I can use it, and it's fun! Ability to use this package having always illuded me before, I'd like to try to build some skill here. My day job is still boring me and the commute is a grind again. We are somewhat awaiting a reorg announcement that should determine what the future plan for our team is. Best case scenarios that we all dreamt up before aren't looking that likely now, so I think I have to assume what I have now is what will remain. Unfortunately that doesn't fit me.

6. Would you believe I now have an email setting out my goals and targets for 2008-9. I still need to have a discussion with my manager about them, but finally some team direction, something that has felt a little lacking lately. Of course with the previous point on reorgs in mind, still very little certainty. Once i've reviewed them i'll start talking about sticking to them.

5. Tried to get back into the studio stuff last night but my Ableton installation broke when AVG detected a trojan in a related file. Teach me to use.. yeah. Anyway nothing new recorded but I have been putting in a bit of time. Not as much as I said I would though.

4. Reasonable night out on Saturday this week, though ended up third wheel with a couple I don't know that well to begin with. When, however, the plan was originally to go alone, going with people must be better. Facebook is good for touching base with people regularly, but it still feels "unreal" to me. Almost as if without the effort of making contact it's a throwaway comment here or there. In response to my own opinion I try to write more to others on there, and get frustrated when I still get the one line responses back.

3. No photography this time.

2. Raised myself with a few wins back into the 35k region and decided to apply the 1/3 backroll rule and play another 10k. For some reason after my insane success with these last month i'm getting killed in them every time. True poker style lets dissect my bad beat. A5 of hearts from early position with 2/3 stack remaining. Mid-sized blinds. Called and flopped two more hearts. Weary from beats I now thoroughly expect to throw another 2-3 times the chips trying to draw out another heart that never shows for the nut flush. My worries were misfounded. Heart on the turn, I have the nut flush and people raising ahead of me. Even better, everybody calls my raise. Wondering what they could be calling I check the board carefully for any pairing I may have missed. Been caught there a few times, but no! No pairing on the board, and the river keeps things that way. The river in fact was yet another heart, but hey, I have the ace. What can go wrong. I will now mention that along with my A5 holding, the hearts on board were 9, 10 and Q. All in with three other players, two of which who were just idiots in the pot, my supposed nut flush was cracked KJ of hearts giving the guy a straight flush. Never before have I been quite this unlucky! The really sickening part is that he was right to call, and right to raise. Odds wise until the river his hand was probably solid. After the river in normal circumstances he'd be fearing the lone Ace, but of course by then he knew what he had, though of course he was only playing for what I was, not what he ended up lucking out on. I couldn't have made him fold, and I couldn't fold. Odds-wise, why the hell would I? I admit, I didn't consider the straight flush when I pushed, but what difference does it make? He would have pushed had I not, and I'd have been nuts to fold. No win situation there if you ask me, though I guess when this rare hand shows itself it's at least sometimes going to crack flushes to ace, probably in just this way. This all happened in about 30 seconds. It was the end of the one game I played today. I really do stick to this rule.

1. I was very good last week, food-wise. I feel I made no mis-steps at all, skipped Saturday meal before going out (my new rule for another reason) intending to have a takeaway late night. Didn't feel like it, so didn't. This(next) week won't be as great because i've ended up with a mass of egg pasta that I must get through in two sittings.

Doing this in reverse felt about the same as doing it the normal way. I also didn't use the lyrical style for some reason. Weird. C-ya'll.