The Killing and the Living

Posted on April 8, 2013 by admin

The Killing is a new detective show on AMC, but I watched it on netflix mail-in DVD’s (so it takes me two weeks to watch the whole thing). It starts out very promising with a grisly murder and intrigue. But they spend way too much time filling episode quotas than actually revealing secrets. It’s obvious fairly on that the congressman is the guilty party but they pretend through a variety of bad devices to insinuate that either the teacher or the father’s employee might possibly be the murderer. They are successful only to the degree that one wishes the show were good and entertains the writers primarily with hope for expected rewards (which are never given). There are multiple areas where the producers fail to make sense. In one episode the main detective is telling her ex-husband that if he ever goes near her son again she will file a lawsuit against him. Then, in the very next episode she’s talking amiably on the phone with her son like that never happened; talking with him about the wonderful day he is having with his father at that moment.

I’m making real progress on myself. I’ve been staying sober, eating very well (although I’ve always done that), and exercising regularly. On top of that I’ve been getting 7-10 hours of sleep per night and reading a great deal. I re-designed the layout for my blog today so I’ll be doing a bit more of writing as well. I feel very happy about life, my place in it, and the future. I’ve long realized what I needed to do to be better but have had demons with very persuasive ability pulling me in the wrong direction much of the time for the past 20 years. Of course I have had good times during those 20 years and even accomplished many things on various levels (physical, mental, and spiritual) but I’d reached a plateau, especially after my divorce and now is the time to move forward with all my strength of character to become even more profoundly powerful and myself. I’m looking forward to the adventures that await me. I can do amazing things.

So last week I had an interesting experience. I went to the Raven Bar in San Francisco for my friend’s birthday party. I arrived early and ordered a drink while a gay asian man hit on me. I then made my way to the back of the bar and convinced the doorman to let me through the gate going upstairs to the private party there. I didn’t know anyone at the private party but met a nice guy and his girlfriend (she was drunk). We talked for a bit and had some beer. After a bit I got bored and went back downstairs to find my friend and his girlfriend. I ran into the gay asian man again and he flirted with me some more. I found my friend and his girlfriend and gave him the gift I’d brought him – a little music box that plays the Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’. They were delighted, or so they seemed. I then went outside to the smoking area where I found an attractive, young blonde smoking a cigarrette. I sat down near here and we started talking. She was very interested in Alaska and I tried to tell her about it, but every time I started talking she angrily interrupted me. She kept touching me and I could tell she wanted me to ask for her number (or she was on cocaine) but I was scared of her interrupting and didn’t ask her. I left early to catch the subway back to Berkeley. Once in Berkeley I still felt social and ended up going to the ‘Graduate‘ bar in Oakland where I met a bunch of other students and had entirely too much fun.

This past weekend I went with my friend Anne to the Tilden park botanical gardens and the Tilden small farm, both of which are delightful, and both of which I had not been to before. The farm especially delighted me because I love animals – even the cow that peed right in front of me (practically in my face). But the gardens were also wonderful because I am learning to identify plants in California and while the Berkeley botanical gardens are wonderful, they have flora from all over the world and the California section is not limited to the Bay area; however the Tilden gardens are regional so I can learn a lot from them. I want to be an expert.

Educause Conference 2013 – Austin Recap

Posted on February 20, 2013 by admin

This year I attended the Educause online regional conference in Austin online February 12-14, 2013. I’ve probably attended five or more Ed conferences in my life, and this was the first one I’ve ever done online. A few thoughts about the online experience before I recap some of the (I hope) interesting takeaways from the sessions.

The Online Experience

It wasn’t what I was expecting in a sense. I was imagining it would be terribly boring to attend the sessions virtually and I was afraid I would struggle to absorb the information being presented. Interestingly, I thought I was basing this thinking on previous online seminars I have attended from Sloan, Educause and others, and in a sense I was, but I was also basing it off my dislike of attending Ed conferences the traditional way.

There were some technical issues with my password that turned out to be a simple case of my copying the password incorrectly – accidentally adding a space at the beginning when I pasted it in, that prevented me initially from accessing the Adobe Connect conference room. After I realized my amateur mistake, and felt the accompanying mild embarrassment, I was able to login, test my headset, and make connection with the hosts.

Once the sessions started I had no technical difficulty, other than the second day of the conference where there was some connectivity issues that I’m not sure were the fault of my own Internet connection, which can be spotty at times, or the conference servers. But of course I was able to watch any sessions I missed live in the recorded archives one or two hours after they were presented. This did prevent me from commenting in real-time and Twittering the sessions on day two, but Twitter was mainly being used by attendees to merely summarize what session speakers were talking about anyway – hardly value-added in my opinion.

Overall I discovered that I was much BETTER able to absorb the material being presented and to think critically about it in the online milieu than I typically am when attending face-to-face. Part of this had to do with the fact that I was home, comfortable, with my cat Angel sleeping nearby, and a hot cup of coffee (and food whenever I wanted it) right next to me. I was able to let my guard down by being away from hordes of strangers and this made it easier to concentrate. In addition I could rewind the material in the archived sessions if I missed an important point and was able to really ‘get’ what was being discussed.

Day One

The first day included sessions on Developing your 5 year professional development plan, How Geeks and non-Geeks can work together, a fresh look on digital natives, going mobile, and iPads on campus.

The professional development plan session seemed like a lot of talk about something I already understand – although maybe I’m just being complacent (it’s not like my career arc has been perfect by any means). At any rate it was not an auspicious beginning to the conference from my perspective; this session really did bore me. The sessions on geeks and non-geeks didn’t improve the conference outlook either; I always find such comparisons and generalizations insulting. I did, however, become interested during the talk on digital natives.

For example, I learned – if it wasn’t clear already – that I’m a digital immigrant. According to one study from Rice University, if you learned about the Sandy Hook school shootings on Twitter you’re a digital native; if you used some other source you’re an immigrant (guiltily – for many reasons – I learned of the shootings on the abyssmal MSNBC). The lecturer, Gary Kidney, also noted that students LIKE when professors use PowerPoint to distribute their lectures online (61% of undergrads expect it in fact). Students like the PowerPoint because it’s a great way to take notes in-class because it organizes the content well. Prezi – for all it’s presentation magic – cannot do for students what PowerPoint can do.

Kidney did make some dubious claims however such as his report that 100% of their students have cell phones with Internet and Wi-Fi as well as another device with Wi-Fi (such as an iPad). I will say this again, even in the modern era I find this hard to believe. However, they also reported that students didn’t like to use their phones for learning (amen) but LOVED using them for things like scheduling and checking the cafeteria menu, and of course social networking. I don’t know what method was used to gather these statistics and I don’t know how students are equipped with technology at Rice, so I just want to be clear I’m not saying Mr. Kidney is making up his statistics (not at all in fact – just that I find it hard to believe). At UC Berkeley I’m fairly certain not even 50% of our students use iPAD based on some initiatives we’ve worked on in the past year.

Responsive web design and the awesomeness of the Twitter bootstrap framework were my takeaways from the talk on going mobile at Texas A & M. I don’t think those assertions were ever in doubt…although presumably some would disagree. Isn’t there always someone to disagree on everything? Sorry, rhetorical question. One question worth considering when developing a mobile application: do I need a fully functional, responsive website or will a mobile app do?

Regarding iPADs on campus it was asserted (Emily Cicchini and James Kerkhoff) that because of their light weight and ease of use (and size actually) iPADs are GREAT for content creation. This doesn’t surprise me in the least. Last year I was lucky enough to get a first hand view of creating an eText with Apple iBooks (at Apple headquarters) and I was very pleased with what I saw. If eTextbooks all used the capabilities of iBooks (and also students actually had access to iPADs, or similar devices) paper textbooks would be DOA; I assert this to be 100% true.

Anyway, back to the session on iPADs…

The presenters also talked about how all assets are saved in the cloud (iPAD doesn’t have a file storage system) or in its applications; it’s more secure and easier to troubleshoot than laptops; it’s lighter to carry (obviously), and it doesn’t require much support! These are all great advantages no doubt. This was my favorite session of the day (of course it helped that they put in a plug for my favorite organizational app Evernote).

Day 2

This was the day I had to watch the recorded sessions because the connectivity was a problem. So I was a bit lonely that day and needed a drink after it was all over, but I learned a great deal as I said. The topics for the day included: copyright issues online, blending technology with purpose (am ambiguous title no doubt), research information management systems (a totally new topic for me), comics for learning, and NextGenU.

Live lectures can’t be copyrighted but if fixed in a tangible medium (recorded) they can be. So based off that premise the talk centered around MOOCs and whether or not that material can by copyrighted. It gets even murkier when you ask who gets the copyright – the animators, illustrators, writers, etc? Multiple people are collaborating to create the course. These are good, valid points and I don’t know the answer to them; interesting session.

Baylor University uses student smartphones as clickers. With their device webdav-enabled the students are able to share files in blackboard mobile or write their blog entries with their WordPress app. All very cool indeed. Why is Berkeley not yet up to snuff? Students are even attending Elluminate Live conference sessions on their mobile devices at Baylor! Now Baylor tech ops are looking into mobile printing as well. Crazy cool. Helen Chu from the University of Oregon was also there and talked about new learning spaces at the University of Oregon. This is not in any way my expertise so I won’t comment on it other than to say they are doing some cool stuff at U of O! I think it would be worthy anyone’s time to stop by the University if they happen to be in the area and see first-hand what they’ve done with their help desk and their IT.

Jerry McLaughlin of Symplectic gave a demonstration of a new Research Information Management System that I didn’t fully understand. Apparently management of research information data is tough and when he explained it I could see why. Researchers (and the people who support them) are using multiple library systems to catalog data and its difficult to share this information because each database system from which they are pulling data has different sharing standards (technically speaking).

The discussion on comics was a bit of a letdown but that might be my own fault as an avid collector of comics when I was a kid I was looking for something based around superheroes. I’m not sure what I was expecting really but what I saw wasn’t it. The idea of using comics for learning is terrific though; I approve.

NextGenU I had not heard about but apparently you can take for-credit classes online (with the approval of your institution) for FREE. Yea, well so what? The so what is that they have a very unique way of doing it in that peer relationships and mentoring are both encouraged, and in many cases, required. Unfortunately this system is currently only offering courses in health sciences topics but they are designing other courses in other disciplines as we speak. Lockdown security for assessments and an ad-free environment further enhance the potential of the system. I still need to setup a username and password so I can try this out.

Day 3

This day had me up at the crack of dawn (actually very much like the day before) – 6am to be exact as sessions started at 8am Central time. Topics for the day included using the Library as an API, how IT can get along with everyone else, developing leaders in IT, implementing a cloud-first strategy, google apps for education, and emerging insights on learning and technology presented by the estimable Mark Milliron.

The session on using the library as API was fascinating to me. What do students need to do to conduct research in the 21st century. Shockingly perhaps it usually involves a physical visit to the library archives on campus. How nice would it be if there was an API that allowed faculty to bring in the library databases to the LMS so that students could easily check them out online? The technology is there but implementation is not so easy; the presenter for this session laid out a possible roadmap that is not so easy to implement and makes me wonder if this is the best we can do, but the idea he presented was terrific. It is, as follows:

Bring the various library-based databases such as EBSCO and ProQuest Summon into the LMS using an API (different depending on your LMS – at Berkeley we use Sakai although Canvas has been talked about as a possible replacement). Then use BasicLTI to embed database search and gather widgets in the LMS to allow faculty to show available readings and students to check them out…all of this easily enabled using the basic login authentication students used to get into the LMS in the first place. Simply wow.

The sessions on IT getting along with others and Google Apps I didn’t find very useful. This is not, obviously, to say there was nothing useful in them, but I didn’t personally find them valuable. I hate having to explain things. Two takeaways from those sessions however: 1) when marketing IT to stakeholders IT needs to be aware that telling stories need to begin with FACTS and that keeping promises leads to trust. Duh. Still, worth noting; 2) Google Apps for Education comes with 8 core services including Groups and Sites…why doesn’t Berkeley have these two as part of our Google Apps for Education suite?? I love Google sites for student portfolios.

Developing leaders for IT was very insightful for me. The session was essentially split into two tracks of inspiration: what leaders should do to cultivate leaders and what wannabe leaders should do to cultivate themselves to become leaders. Here’s the two tracks in summary:

Developing Leaders (for leaders):

meet bi-weekly with subordinates
provide challenges and opportunities
inspire and motivate others to look at their leadership potential
co-develop a roadmap to achieve goals
give feedback, encouragement, support
look for leaders at any level in ANY area (cool)
nudge people out of their comfort zones
customize mentoring to match the protege
delegate decision-making
allow opportunities for failure
believe in people
INTERACT WITH PEOPLE AT THEIR POTENTIAL – NOT WHERE THEY ARE TODAY

Aspiring leaders should:

focus on education and self-development
self-assess, self-assess, self-assess
do a gap analysis – what do I need to do to be where I want to be?
seek a mentor
seek other professional development opportunities
set goals and plan for the future

Implementing a cloud-first strategy was interesting for several reasons: 1) the idea of hosting the LMS AND the authentication mechanism in the cloud (with a local failsafe) is immensely attractive for many reasons, not least of which is that it’s earthquake-proof. And in California that means something! Not only that but it’s more secure to use a reliable third party service actually. Finally, I liked the idea they promoted of making the role of IT staff one of architects rather than stewards. I should quote that somehow but I’m not sure that was the quote. At any rate the presenter of the lecture gets credit for the stewards comment.

Mark Milliron had many insights to share with us including the following salient points:

OERCommons.org rocks for free content
4 year full-time undergrads only represent about 20% of the higher-ed population today O.o
Let’s change the lecture/homework dynamic so that the lecture is the homework and the homework is the classtime (hell yes)
47% of gamers today are women. damn, really?
Fastest growing cohort of gamers are the over 50 age group.
Instead of charging students resource and materials fees for every class they take (which are variable and tend to discourage poor students from taking more expensive classes, which is just unfair) charge them a flat fee for the semester for all resources they might use.
Get data for various IT services and initiatives into the hands of students; they will demand the change they need.
Students need to know all the time how they are doing in their courses, not just at midterm, after the final, or when they ask.

This post is already long enough so I’m not going to summarize everything for you here, but if you weren’t able to attend the conference I recommend reading what I posted above.

California: 7 Month Update

Posted on February 24, 2012 by admin

I’ve been living in Berkeley, California now for about 7 months, maybe a hair longer. I have accomplished so much in a very short period of time.

When I arrived by UHaul with trailer and car in tow I was tired and lonely; I had just spent 9 months in Idaho with very little human contact outside my office peers, which of course was confined mainly to shop and small talk.

My first two weeks in California I spent acclimating myself to the climate, geography, and people. I familiarized myself with my walk to work (which by now I have completed several hundred times at least), and my immediate surroundings. I enjoyed local cuisine and set up my apartment with the belongings I had brought with me from Idaho, including my IKEA couch, coffee table, and desk, my relatively new queen-sized bed, television, and everything else that makes a home a home.

Everyone here, and by everyone I mean almost everyone I have met so far, is politically liberal. Normally I suppose I should think this is a great thing, growing up as I did in a very culturally conservative place (Alaska), and coming just recently from an even more conservative place (Idaho). But I have to tell you, liberal or conservative, brainless zombies are brainless zombies and are the same no matter what propaganda they are spewing. In some ways I find the conservative bastion of Idaho and the libertarian Alaska to be more friendly than liberal San Francisco. Having said that, I have met many nice, and intelligent people since I moved here.

I was at first very frustrated by my new job at the University of California, Berkeley. It’s a fine place to work, but the culture is very different than I was used to, and working in an open office environment (without my own door) was something I had not done in a long time, and never successfully. With perseverance and thanks to the therapy work I began in August (both group and individual therapy), I was able to overcome my strong resistance to my new office environment…and eventually I was even able to excel in such an environment.

As I mentioned I began therapy with a Jungian psychologist who stresses the importance of social connection as a means to end my loneliness. This has been a very fruitful time in my personal study of myself and my interactions with others. I have learned much about my relationships with my parents, my ex-wife, friends, and others that I had never considered before, both positive and negative with regards to my personal interactions in those relationships. I have learned how to cope with my copious shame from childhood, and to deal with strangers. I have overcome my reliance on alcohol as a coping mechanism and begun healing my body and mind. My ability to express my feelings – all my feelings, both positive and negative, has been increased greatly and it is now something I do regularly, which keeps me happier.

Real connections with others is my salvation for my loneliness and the only path forward for me. I am now working on my greatest challenge of all – how to ‘let go’, stop trying to control everything in my life, and allow true intimacy in. This is a very difficult challenge, but I feel confident I am up to the task.

My traveling companion and constant friend, Angel (my burmese cat), who also annoys me endlessly with her incessant crying at any time of her pleasing day or night is doing quite well, although she was diagnosed just two months ago by her new veterinarian as “overweight” and “arthritic”. The nurse said “she is a very particular lady;” indeed. She has decided that 7 am – or as soon as it gets light is the new time when I shall be required to wake and feed her…this is sometimes funny and sometimes annoying as hell. But what can I do, she’s 17 years old, ornery, and I love her.

I have read many books in the past 7 months including “Healing your emotional self”, “Metamorphosis” (by Ovid), “Inner Work”, “10 Universal Principles” (in which I discovered my strong personal opposition to abortion though I remain pro-choice), “Rise and fall of the Roman Empire”, “The Assertiveness Workbook” (highly recommended), “Learn any language”, “The Blunderer” (by my favorite suspense fiction author Patricia Highsmith), “The Book”, and “Spanish Vocabulary”. I have also started reading “The Koran” and find that although it is quite violent (contrary to some popular opinions) I also like it’s emphasis on worshipping God directly.

I have met a married couple visiting from China and showed them around Palo Alto (Stanford University, Google and Apple headquarters), been to Fisherman’s Wharf (3 times) and seen the sea lions and Alcatraz Island. I’ve been to Chinatown and Japantown and tasted mochi for the first time (quite yummy actually). I’ve dated a beautiful, younger african-american girl, been on some other dates that didn’t quite work out, eaten a whole host of delicious indian, thai, chinese, italian, ethiopian, and american cuisine. I’ve traveled to Mexico for 9 days, been to Minnesota to see my grandmother and other family, been to Santa Rosa three times, visited the vineyards in Sonoma county twice including the famous Francis Ford Coppola vineyard.

My next goal other than learning to ‘let go’, although its tangential to that goal, is to discover what I want to make my life. Will I stay an office worker the rest of my life (a terrible waste of my talents, whatever those might be)? Will I start on another career path that involves being a professional of some type (consulting, psychology, etc.)? Or will I do something highly artistic? Perhaps all or none of those things, and quite possibly, something totally unexpected. It should be an interesting year.

Reflections on Idaho

Posted on July 10, 2011 by admin

What does it say about a place when its most grandiose landmark is a cemetary?

I moved to Pocatello – in southern Idaho – to get away from Fairbanks, Alaska. I had a good job in Fairbanks, with a great boss, and awesome co-workers…doing interesting things. I’m still skeptical I’ll ever find a better – or even an equally great – job (although so far my new, current job is pretty sweet). I also had wonderful, close friends…and my family. But I was depressed in Fairbanks, unable to imagine a future there – stuck in a rut; I had to leave.

I secured a position as a Senior Instructional Technologist at Idaho State University and I took it. When I visited the place in the summer it was hot and dry – the high desert because of its high elevation and shrubby greenery; it’s a lot like Salt Lake City – which is actually just a three hour drive south, and a place I would visit quite a bit while I was living there; I thought it was beautiful. Little did I know that hot and dry though it could be, there was lot’s of other weather that was possible. In fact, the weather always changed there. Idaho has a lot more weather than anyplace I’ve ever lived; it’s a joke there in fact. Fairbanks might be 50 below zero for weeks at a time, but the weather is not that variable.

I had a spacious office but it was in a dungeon. I say that with only a hint of exaggeration. My office – like all the offices in the basement of the library – had zero windows and thus no natural light. It was loud (because of the echo) and the temperature was always either too hot or too cold. Everyone in the building seemed depressed – understandably so – and people were often sick (oddly, not just in my office but in the entire town seemingly). Living and working in Pocatello it seemed was going to be somehow, improbably, more depressing than Fairbanks.

And in fact in 9 months there I made no friends whatsoever – although I did try, admittedly not very hard. I would say I was lonely the entire time but that would be only partially true. I had my cat Angel who is always fond of keeping company – she likes to talk – and Alyssa, the girl I fell in love with. I was not expecting to fall in love, and I didn’t ask it to happen; but it did. Sometimes, it seems, when you are at your lowest and it seems things can’t get any better – they get miraculously better, and in a very unexpected way.

I don’t miss Pocatello, but I do miss Idaho. San Francisco is amazing, and I’m loving living here…but there was a certain solitude about living alone in Idaho, with my large apartment, my netflix and my cable tv, my large porch and backyard with my view of the freeway, and my conservative, keep to yourself neighbors, that I miss. But you can’t have everything in life, and that was a period my life I will always cherish, despite the difficulties.

Review of Cake Poker

Posted on May 5, 2011 by admin

In the aftermath of Black Friday I was left searching for an alternative place to play poker online. Unlike many online poker players I don’t have the luxury (yet) of being able to play poker offline as a substitute. I actually prefer face-to-face play because a.) it’s more fun, and b.) I can use my knowledge of nonverbal communication to great effect. But here in Pocatello there aren’t any face-to-face poker outlets that I know of. I’m moving to the Bay Area in late June however so I’m hopeful I will find some when I move.

At any rate, I was left looking for a new place to play online. At first I thought all the online sites were outlawed and didn’t bother looking; but, when I read more about the indictment and the arrests of the leaders of the major poker sites I discovered there are in fact other poker sites that still cater to players from the United States. Cake Poker is one of the one’s I discovered. In this article I’m going to tell you a little bit about my experiences with Cake Poker; both the good and the bad.

Cake Poker

What I Like

The first things you notice when you visit the Cake Poker website – linked to above (and seen below) – is the cool black and orange coloring scheme as well as the logo which is comprised of a stack of black poker chips cut like a cake. They are also – still, as of this writing – offering a big sign-up bonus of 110% of your initial deposit; that’s a HUGE bonus.

Although it is a somewhat time-consuming process, depositing money into my account was quite easy. You can’t just deposit directly from your bank account as you could – at least initially – with PokerStars (my old haunt). I suspect this is one of the reasons Cake Poker and others like it can continue operating in the United States. I know the Black Friday indictments had something to do with banking and fraud.

With Cake Poker you can either use a prepaid credit card to deposit money into your account or MoneyLineWallet – which is essentially an intermediary between your bank and whichever online merchant you choose to transfer money to. I chose MoneyLineWallet – although I didn’t have an account yet – because I like the ease of transferring money from my bank account to my poker site. At PokerStars this had the additional advantage that you didn’t get charged by your bank, or PokerStars, for such transactions.

The tables are just OK – I talk more about them under ‘What I Didn’t Like’ (below) – but they aren’t terrible. They are not as big and nice as the one’s at PokerStars (can you tell I’m wistful?) but they work like you’d expect – although most tables in tournaments have 10 players instead of the usual 9 for some reason. You generally get more time to make decisions at Cake Poker tables, at least it seems you do when someone goes all-in. I have to study that more. Generally though the play moves quite fast, which is great. PokerStars sometimes had really annoying lags.

You can customize the look and feel of your table – by changing the color of the felt, the colors of the backs of the cards, the room background, and the look of the players for example. I like the blue felt but wish there was a way to make it permanent so I didn’t have to change it each time (there may be in fact but I haven’t discovered it yet). The stacks of chips, though smallish, do look very nice though.

There are some very good players on Cake Poker, but most of them are not as good as me (a welcome change from PokerStars which had lot’s of great players). Thus I have found myself making more money at the cash tables than I did at PokerStars. On the other hand I tend to do worse at the tournaments in Cake Poker – even if they have lot’s of cheap entry fee games (and some very expensive one’s). With PokerStars I got to the point where I was usually able to win my entry fee money back at least, but with Cake Poker I have yet to do so; I think mainly that less places are paid in Cake Poker – and also less players in general (a lot less) – has something to do with it.

What I Didn’t Like

MoneyLineWallet was fairly easy to use, although I felt a bit leery when I had to give them a copy of my driver’s license, utility bill, and other documents. I actually don’t recommend using MoneyLineWallet, because after I made my initial deposit of $25 (the required minimum at Cake Poker), I soon discovered an added fee of around $4.50 from MoneyLineWallet – so almost $30 was taken out of my bank account. This is higher than the fee I pay using my ICE Visa prepaid card (re-fillable at Wal-Mart and Moneygram locations).

The bonus is nice, but it turns out you have to EARN your bonus through cash table play. Generally this is fine for me because I like occasionally playing at the cash tables…and you do earn frequent player points (FPP) rapidly on Cake Poker (you need about 80 FPP to earn your first $5 of bonus). I’ve been using Cake Poker for about 3 weeks now and have about half the FPP I need to make my first $5 in bonus. Keep in mind I work 8 hours per day and have other stuff to do when I get home after work so I really don’t play poker all that much – and when I do it’s usually in tournaments. If you played the cash tables during the day and at night, and played more frequently than I do, I imagine you could make up your first bonus in less than a week, easy.

The tables are a bit small – you cannot resize the rooms beyond a certain level and the chips are really tiny. I’ve gotten used to it now and it doesn’t bother me that much anymore, but when I started playing I had to squint to see the amounts being played by the players.

There are occasionally some issues with consistent performance of the platform I’ve noticed. Sometimes when you are officially ‘on break’ in a tournament for example – and there is a sign right across the middle of the board telling you so – an additional hand is dealt that you must play; that is somewhat annoying, although the hand is still playable. There are other things too, for example, I have signed up for a freeroll tournament once and not been allowed entry without any reason being given why (i’m sure I registered). There are other glitches that occur from time to time, but nothing so far that has lost me money (fingers crossed).

Things I’m Not Sure About

There is a feature called Gold Cards, Chips, and Stacks which I’m unsure about still. I haven’t really dabbled in it because it’s just not very interesting to me – although I admit the gold cards look pretty. I know you can buy and sell these things in some sort of online marketplace, and you can use them to gain entrance to various tournaments; but beyond that I’m not really sure what they are for, although apparently some people make a bit of money buying and selling these things. You can also win Gold Cards during tournaments and cash play I believe, although I have yet to win any myself.

Overall

At this point I’m not sure I can recommend Cake Poker. I find myself missing the experience of PokerStars and looking more actively for face-to-face rooms. Cake Poker gives me my fix but there just aren’t enough players on there yet to make it truly worthwhile.

Free the Sage Website and Move to Berkeley

Posted on May 3, 2011 by admin

I finally…FINALLY, finished the website to go along with this blog; hopefully now I can get back to writing posts regularly, or semi-regularly. Let me know what you think of it!

On an unrelated note – and you may know this already if you are one of my friends – but I am moving to Berkeley, California. I accepted a position there as a trainer 3 at UC Berkeley in the ETS. This is a great opportunity for me and I’m very excited by it; the increased pay, which is substantial, and the fact that it’s in one of the coolest, large cities in the United States are huge bonuses. Moreover, the people I will be working with are smart, creative people and I think a lot of fun (and work of course) will be had!

Still looking for a place in Berkeley, Oakland, or San Francisco of course, and getting excited for the move.

Intermediate Poker Skills

Posted on April 30, 2011 by admin

I’m getting pretty good at poker. I routinely play tournaments and last at least into the bubble period (before, during, and just after the point where you make a return on your initial investment). My intuition and ability to read the other players is stronger than ever before and that has helped me quite a bit to reach these later rounds. However I have realized my understanding of the math involved in poker is lacking so I have been reading a book on probabilities called Texas Hold’em Odds and Probabilities: Limit, No-Limit, and Tournament Strategies. It’s a really, really useful book for coming to terms with how odds and probabilities work. Did you know you have a 1 in 8 chance of flopping a set (three of a kind) on the flop if you already have a pocket pair? Or that you have 2 to 1 odds of making a flush by the river if you flop a flush draw (4 of one suit)?

Note: If you purchase the above book by clicking the link I get a small payment from Amazon for my referral.

I’ve been looking around trying to brush up on my understanding of probabilities, so I can continue to play in tournaments whilst I read and grasp this book. The following are some of the great sites and articles I have found to be extraordinarily helpful to me:

1. Poker Strategy (lot’s of great articles here)

2. Dumping the Second Best Hand – this is a fantastic article that really sheds some light on a major failing point for beginning and intermediate poker players (losing money with the second best hand – be careful of those QT unsuited hands…)

3. Before the Flop – Useful and important pre-flop advice, such as “Do not call a raise if you are not in possession of a very good hand that you, yourself, could raise with.”)

4. Set Mining – Employ this strategy, if warranted, to make major earnings.

5. Odds Calculator – for determining your odds of making your potentially winning hand after the flop, and how much you should call if drawing on the turn and river (if at all).

Comparing and Contrasting the Movies Heat and The Town

Posted on April 17, 2011 by admin

The first time I saw Heat, when it came out in the movie theater’s in 1995 I was flabbergasted. Now here was an amazing bank heist movie; quite possibly the most amazing bank heist movie ever; certainly the best I had ever seen. Many years later, well just last year in fact, the movie The Town was released and I saw it in the theater’s as well. Now here was another excellent bank heist movie! Quite possibly better than Heat…or was I mis-remembering how good Heat was? So I decided to rent them both on Netflix and compare them, hence this article.

In the following paragraphs I’m going to compare and contrast the central characters, the major conflicts, and other important scenes from each movie to show how Heat remains the better bank heist movie. Let’s begin by analyzing the characters.

The Characters

There are really two main characters in Heat: Neil McCauley (the leader of the armed robbers, played by Robert DeNiro) and Lt. Vincent Hanna (the detective chasing Mr. McCauley and his crew, played by Al Pacino). The most interesting thing about Heat is the interplay between these two characters, and the revelation (not highly concealed) that they are two sides of the same coin. Lt. Hanna is the ‘good’ guy, but only because he cares a little bit more about human life than McCauley; in love they are both miserable human beings. You feel sympathy throughout he movie for both men, because, as the following video clip shows, they are both just doing what they do (robbing banks and catching bank robbers) because it’s all they know how to do. This is the best scene in the movie and is a classic case of protagonist meets antagonist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYSzx_zy-98

In The Town there is only one major character: Doug MacRay (the leader of the bank robbers, played by Ben Affleck). The movie centers around him and his burgeoning love interest in the former bank manager of the bank he and his crew hold up at the beginning of the movie. They robbed her and held her at gunpoint, then kidnapped her, presumably so they wouldn’t get shot by the police, and then let her go, blindfolded, on a nearby beach – she thought she was going to die. She doesn’t know he was one of the bank robbers (because they always wear thematic costumes), and he doesn’t tell her he is one of the bank robbers, because she is so traumatized by the event, and he is falling for her. He doesn’t mean to fall in love with her; he begins by stalking here to find out how much she knows and how much she is cooperating with the police once one of his crew discovers she lives nearby them.

Like in Heat, Doug MacRay is not an ‘evil’ person, despite his bank robbing ways; he’s a man trapped in an unfortunate situation, with no easy outs. When he tries to leave, the people who hire him and his crew to take down banks threatens his friends and family. He does eventually get away – unlike Neil in Heat – but the damage has been done; his friends get killed, and he loses his girl. In both movies the bank robbers mostly all die.

Major Conflicts:

The primary conflicts in Heat occur between Neil and Vincent, Neil and his girlfriend, Val Kilmer’s character and his girlfriend, Vincent and his wife, and the rogue bank robber/serial killer and Neil. Most of these conflicts revolve around the idea that being involved in or with law enforcement in some way entails broken love. Those are in fact he primary conflicts – those of interpersonal relationships of the various characters. The conflict between Neil and Vincent is less fraught with emotion, betrayal, and pain, and is more about mutual respect. In fact, in the final scene, in which Vincent hunts Neil down in a shadowed area outside the airport, moving from crate to crate, the only light coming from the ground lights that flash on brightly, and very briefly, when a plane lands, their is a showdown and Vincent mortally injures Neil. While Neil is dying Vincent looks into his eyes and holds his hands.

In the Town the conflicts are between Doug and his girlfriend the bank manager, and Doug and his accomplices. In the first instance it’s the same sort of conflict we find in the Heat, although demonstrably more complex because not only is Doug on the run, but he also inflicted a severe amount of emotional pain on his girlfriend when they first met, and subsequently lied to her. There is also a conflict between Doug and his father – who was also a bank robber, and is currently serving time in prison (life) – and I thought this was the most interesting conflict of all in either movie. His mother left his father (and committed suicide) at a very young age, soon after Doug was born. There is a telling dialogue between Doug and his father, in prison, and it brings home the gritty reality of the life this family has endured, as bank robbers, on the run from the law; it’s not glamorous, it’s tragic.Recollecting what his father told him when he was a boy, his father says:

Your mother left; she’s not coming back.

Other Major Scenes:

The street shootout between the cops and robbers in The Heat is one of the most memorable gun fighting scenes in all of movie history. It’s violent and epic. Only a video would do, so here it is for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL9fnVtz_lc

Most of this scene, as you can see for yourself, is intended to show you the seriousness of what both sides of this fight are involved in; they both want what they want (money vs. justice) very, very much; and it’s tragic too because not only do scores of innocents presumably die, but the driver of the getaway car is killed as well, just as he was reforming himself after being released from prison, and was loved, and believed in, by his girlfriend.

The other major scene of this type in the movie is at the beginning when they take the armored truck, and the serial killer member of the crew (the new guy) displays his psychotic behavior by killing the security guards execution-style, which leads to the crew being investigated and hunted by Vincent in the first place.

In The Town the primary combat scenes involve the various bank robberies, where the camera alternates between shots of the bank robbers in full, typical movie color, and silent shots from the video cameras installed in the bank; I thought this was a very effective technique. There is a shootout scene in The Town as well, although it’s less epic than the one in Heat, but also more nuanced in the ways in which the robbers attempt their escape – by donning various uniforms, first as medical staff and then as police officers to evade the other police officers. There is also a car chase in a minivan – a type of scene lacking in Heat for the most part – and of course lot’s of gunfire.

Conclusion:

I loved the costumes the bank robbers use in The Town; they dress up as nuns, medical staff, the undead, and police officers in four different scenes. Also the cinematography is better and it’s more modern. Heat can be amusing sometimes because it’s so old-fashioned with the old, and ugly 90′s Ford Mustangs and Camaros, and the ponytails and other silly 1990′s ‘styles’ that reminds one that the 1990′s really weren’t that much more stylish than the 1980′s after all. In general the acting is better in The Town as well. However, despite Al Pacino’s overacting in The Heat, I think the story of two lost souls fighting each other to prove their respective world views are correct, as well as the mesmerizing street fight scene and the scene in the restaurant with Pacino and DeNiro, makes Heat a more durable, exciting, and interesting movie. I recommend both however.

Ultimate Poker Strategy

Posted on April 15, 2011 by admin

The key to the strategy is patience. What I’m about to tell you applies equally to both small, table games and tournament play. Let’s begin by assuming the environment is as follows:

There are more than six players
Everyone starts with the same number of chips
The blinds increase in time-based increments
Most of the people you are playing against are overly aggressive, passive, both, or in the wrong combination

Step One:

You begin the tournament by observing your opponents; thus psychology plays the most important role early in the game – as well as late in the game, as we shall see. Psychology is such an important part of poker I cannot underestimate it; it’s more important than the math, although as most experts will tell you, a fundamental knowledge of probabilities is highly recommended for anyone seriously interested in competing and winning at poker.

You cannot observe your opponents by betting, so I advise you to remain out of the game for at least a round (everyone has seen the big blind at least once); this means folding your hands no matter what position you are in, and no matter how good your hand looks – UNLESS, and this is very, very rare – you find yourself in an amazing position with the highest of cards (Either AA, KK, or QQ), or you have been called into the flop because you are the big blind and don’t have to put anything more into the pot to advance.

The blinds will be very low at this point so you will lose hardly any money, even if you fold your blinds; but the reward is worth the very small sacrifice, as I’ll explain. Even if you get ordinarily fairly strong hands such as JJ, TT, AK, AQ, or KQ I recommend folding in these early rounds, because you don’t yet know who you are playing, whether they bluff a lot, fold a lot, call a lot, bet a lot, raise a lot, slow play, often go for straights and flushes (drawing hands), and how they play differently depending on the intial strength of their hands. These are all things you want to ultimately know about all your opponenets at the table. Of course you’re not going to learn all this on the first round of play, but you can gain a good insight into the general character of your opponents on this first round and that’s useful as a guide – like doing a superficial reading of a book allows you to ‘know’ about 50% of the book.

Step Two:

Start playing. Call with strong hands in early position; it’s the only way to gauge the strength of your opponent’s hands…and early, especially early in a tournament, you’ll almost always have players who will you call you into the flop (at the very least) if you bet early. You don’t want to raise in early position in most cases, and not just early in a tournament, because you want to gain the advantage of knowing your opponent thinks they have a strong hand (usually an Ace paired with just about anything, a couple of high cards (unpaired), or a small or middle pair). Rarely actually do people get high pocket pairs, so you must understand that most of your opponents who call or raise early have really just a middling hand like Ax or Kx. Thus, if you have a really good hand, you can slow play it, and eventually trap your opponent into going all in on the turn or river when you KNOW you have them beat.

Of course there is always the caveat that in poker, even with pocket Aces, sometimes you have to fold. Most people don’t bluff – especially on the turn (the 4th community card) – and if you feel you are beat despite having a great hand, it’s usually a good idea to fold; unless of course, mathematically you have the advantage to ultimately get the best hand by the fifth card (and the pot is significantly high enough and your requirements for staying in – ie. calling a modest bet) make staying in worth it.

Do NOT go all-in pre-flop early in the game – ESPECIALLY from early position…you will almost always lose…and generally will make less money in the long-run even if you win it occasionally. In all cases, listen to your intuition.

So call in early and middle position if you have a very good hand (KQ suited, AQ suited, AK suited, AK, JJ, QQ, KK, AA, TT, AJ suited, AT suited)…but generally FOLD. An exception that I enjoy would be if you had suited connectors like 67 and a LOT of other players were calling (not raising) in the pot…I call in these situations, unless I am raised (then I fold). The reason for this is that mathematically these hands have about a 33% chance of getting either a straight or flush…and you’ll know how close you are by the flop. Note: I usually just fold if raised on the flop and I’m still a card away from getting that straight or flush, unless the raise is very modest and I can continue without losing too much money. The reason is that almost anything can beat suited connectors that don’t draw to a made hand like a straight or flush.

In late position, with only folds and calls behind you, or modest raises, if you have a strong hand I would raise it to at least three or four times the big blind (don’t go all in); actually I like to raise it to five times the big blind to knock any unserious callers from the board. Unless you have some maniacs at your table (guys who go all in, seriously, sometimes with a K2 suited – a middling hand at best; but also sometimes with pocket Aces and Kings, so be careful), you’ll likely knock off most of the wannabees and end up on the flop with one or two other players – most likely with a worse hand than yourself.

If you played correctly and have an awesome hand like AA, KK, or AK you will likely be in a strong position to raise again on the flop. Often another player will pair some low or middle card they have in their hand, but you will still have the high pair in most situations. If one of these players go all in on the flop be prepared to fold as they likely had a small or middle pair and just flopped a set (three of a kind). So mathematically your Aces are now doomed; get out while you can. On the other hand, your good pocket cards will likely hold up; I recommend calling a lot if you keep getting modest raises, and finally raising if you feel you are getting enough heat to warrant it. If you know and feel you have the best hand, and especially if your opponents seem desperate, then by all means go all in and take your opponents money on the turn or river.

Step Three:

You’ve folded a LOT so far. Hopefully you are only seeing the flop on 15% or less of your hands (often, mostly, the big blinds because you are called into them). You are folding on about half of those hands on the flop when your cards don’t hit. You lose about a third or your stack this way, but you also quadruple your entire stack every 50 hands or so; so you win in the long run. Before too long you are the biggest stack at your table ‘despite’ not playing many hands, or you are one of the bigger stacks.

Now it’s time to get more aggressive and to raise middling hands – especially against weak players – if you have a chance at stealing the blinds. By about 50-75 hands the blinds will be large enough that you’ll want to ‘steal’ the blinds at least once per round just to stay even on your stack…so keep playing conservatively on the flop but start raising pre-flop in middle and late position with middling hands. You’ll probably grow your stack even more, often doubling or tripling it, even from the large amount you already had, IN TIME (this is key). Other players will fear you, and especially if you are on the bubble, will be very conservative with their chips – because they want to get paid for playing; this is the time to steal blinds like mad (but only if you have a middle hand or higher, I’m talking Kx suited or Ax suited or a middle to high pair).

Step Four:

Once you make it to the final table and are tired and grumpy and impatient, it’s time to find a break to drink more water and do some stretches. Note: you should do these at least every hour anyway while playing in a tournament. When it comes down to you and your opponent bet and raise. If you have Ax suited or unsuited you most likely have the best hand. Even if you have a Kx suited you probably have the best hand. High pairs, middle pairs, and even low pairs have strong value at this point. Most people are dealt bad hands most of the time in poker; it’s wise to keep this in mind, ESPECIALLY in heads-up play. Bet, raise, and re-raise…UNLESS your gut tells you your opponent has you beat.

I have literally lost tournaments as the high stack at the table by going all in with KK (a lovely hand) when my opponent – unbeknownst to me – had AA; it’s a terrible feeling and an awful mistake. Always watch out for your opponents, don’t just rely on the seeming strength of your hand…if you have something in heads-up play you PROBABLY have the best hand, but by no means is that certain. Use your psychological profile of your opponent to your advantage. Ask yourself the following:

By how much does he raise when he has a low, middle, or high pair respectively?
Does he call when he has REALLY good hands (he’s a slow player), or when he has middle to poor hands?

Know your opponent. Know how they play. This is the key to tournament championships.

It’s the Final Countdown

Posted on April 12, 2011 by admin

I was driving home for lunch today, listening to The Final Countdown on my iTouch. Before I go any further I should answer two questions you are likely asking yourself: why is this person listening to the Final Countdown and how did it come to pass that he OWNS it? The simple answer is that I love that song; don’t judge…and if you do, please don’t tell me about it. The long answer probably involves a bit of nostalgia for the 1980’s (a rationale for this is not necessary, or even perhaps, possible…or is it?).

So I was driving home listening to the Final Countdown and I started to wonder how this particular song could be used educationally. Of course there are the obvious sociological implications of any song out of the 1980’s, including the long, flowing, gelled hair of the rockers, the tacky clothing, and the epic guitar riffs. All of this could be – and has been explored - by people much more educated in sociology than myself; unless you include a cursory reading of Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, as evidence of mastery. I don’t, and you shouldn’t either.

I’m obligated by law to point out that if you click on the link for Goffman’s book and purchase it, I get a SMALL finder’s fee – from Amazon – because I’m associated with them.

There, are you happy FTC?

My background is in Communications, so I decided to think about it another way. Take a look (and listen) at the Final Countdown video again (if you haven’t already). But before you do, instead of thinking about those obvious sociological implications I already mentioned, think about the presentation of the video itself. Ask yourself the following:

Do the producers of the video have a message or are they just trying to make an awesome video of the band performing their biggest hit?
If they are trying to send a message, such as, for example, that Europe is the greatest rock band of all time (a dubious claim), what is their message?
If they are just trying to make an awesome rock video, did they succeed or fail?
What are the metrics for determining an awesome rock video?
Does the presentation of the song suffer from it being a live performance, or does that enhance the performance of the song on the video? Does it even matter?
What is the deal with the wall clock?

There are lot’s of questions you could ask about this song or this video. I started by thinking just about the song and then moved onto the video, because frankly its more interesting than the song alone. To give you an idea of what I mean, here is a sampling of the lyrics. If you read the text from the sociology link above you’ll notice some of the same imagery about nuclear destruction as touched upon in that article:

We’re leaving together

But still it’s farewell

And maybe we’ll come back

To earth, who can tell?

I guess there is no one to blame

We’re leaving ground

Will things ever be the same again?

It’s the final countdown

The final countdown

My thinking on this video specifically, despite some deeper thinking, is that what the producers are trying to say is just that everything is awesome; and by awesome I mean Europe (the band), the producers, the song itself, the lyrics, the clothing, the hair, the wall clock, the production studio, the fireworks, the audience, literally EVERYTHING is awesome. I don’t think there is a deeper meaning, but I’m not saddened by that, and neither should you be. The 1980’s were a time of collective naivete and ridiculousness. Everything was awesome because we didn’t know any better. I think, in the end, that ‘s why many of us look back on that period of our lives nostalgically. So If you’ll excuse me I’m going to go listen to some Motley Crue and forget I ever wrote this depressing article.