Plano: Day 5

I’m almost done with The Magician’s Nephew; I figure I’ll be through it tonight. I can already see that, as soon as I’m done with it, I’ll be compelled to begin the next book. This is some good stuff.

My TV got here a couple hours ago and, as I expected, it’s good ‘n’ big. I was going to get the smaller version of the same TV, but Best Buy didn’t have it in any of their stores around here and they couldn’t deliver it (”limited delivery area” for that particular TV or something). Anyway, I decided I’d just go ahead and get the bigger version. I figure it’ll be a little more fun anyway.

I tried to play around with the DVD-player/TiVo I bought, but I can’t use it until I perform the initial setup on it… Problem is the initial setup requires a phone line, which I don’t have. So, I’m trying to think of a way to get to a phone line that I can use for an hour while plugging my TiVo into a television, so I can see what I’m doing. I’m still not sure what I’ll do.

I let those jokers at Best Buy talk me into buying the super-expensive Monster Cables (component video and RCA audio) rather than the cheaper Acoustic Research versions of the same cables. After thinking about it and talking to friend, I’m going to take the unopened cables back and get the Acoustic Research ones instead. I doubt I’ll be able to tell the difference in quality, but I’m sure I’ll notice the difference in the quantity of money in my bank account.

In a little bit, some friends are driving over from Ft. Worth for some lunch and then they’re going to help me decide what furniture to get. After three straight days of browsing furniture stores, I’d experienced information overload and couldn’t seem to make a rational decision. Hopefully, some objectivity and good taste will help me decide on something.

All done with Book 1: The Magician’s Nephew

I’m through the first book and that leaves six more. I really enjoyed re-reading the history of Narnia (I had read this book when I was 10 or so, but didn’t remember much of it) and I’m excited to re-read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe over the next few days. What a good use of my time.

Furniture bust

Well, after a few hours and several stores, I decided on a furniture set I really liked. I had actually been looking at the set for a few days, trying to decide if I liked it and what color I’d prefer. This afternoon, I decided I did like the set and that I preferred khaki (over olive and cherry). About 30 seconds after I’d declared my decision to my friends, a salesperson walked up and said, “Oh, you like this set? It’s been discontinued. I think they’re all out of the khaki loveseats.” Of course. The one color of the one set I decided on is discontinued and can’t be found anywhere. So, I’m basically back to square-one. I’m headed back there on Monday to see if they found any of those loveseats, or if maybe one of their warehouses is holding one or couldn’t deliver one or something. It’s all wishful thinking, mostly; I essentially have to just be patient and hope that a local store gets something that I like in soon. Until then, I’ll keep using my leather office chair for all my sitting needs.

Vineyard

I’m going to a Vineyard church tomorrow. I don’t know what to expect, but I hope I enjoy it and meet some people.

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Plano: Day 4

I spent most of the day laying around and watching TV. It’s a good thing it took me a few days to figure out that I could watch the tube with my computer, or I wouldn’t have gotten anything done since I moved here.

Anyway, the major thing I accomplished was getting my car an oil change and a “state inspection”, which is apparently a way that Texas gets lots of annual revenue from everyone who wants to drive a car in the state. The whole deal shoulda’ taken about a half hour, but there was a little misunderstanding that cost me about an hour-and-a-half more: After they’d finished the oil change and had begun the inspection, the guy came inside and said, “You know, one of your wiper blades–I guess it’s a refill or something–is leaving a couple little streaks on the windshield ’cause it’s not making contact or something. Do you want us to put a new one on the driver’s side for ya’?” And, thinking they’d charge me ten bucks or so to install a one-dollar part, I said, “Naw, that’s ok. I’ll just do it myself.” So, a few minutes later, the guy comes in and says, “It’ll be…dollars for the oil change and the inspection, which you failed.” “Failed?”, I said. “Yeah, ’cause of that wiper blade.” And, of course, if I’d known I was going to fail the stupid inspection because of the “little streaks” the wiper blade was leaving, I’d have gone ahead and gotten gouged for the stupid wiper blade. But, because he didn’t explain that I was gonna’ fail the inspection if they didn’t replace that blade, I had to go to Wal-Mart, get blade refills, change the blades in the parking lot, drive back over and wait an hour-and-a-half for the jokers to look at the new blade, give it a test run and decide my car passed.

But, at least I got the oil change and inspection done, so I don’t have to knock off work to get it done later. Tomorrow, I’m going with some friends (who lived in Gainesville and moved out here a little over a year ago) to try to make a final decision on the furniture I’ve been trying to buy.

The Magician’s Nephew is coming along nicely and I’m really enjoying the adventure. C.S. Lewis has a super knack for telling a great, vivid story with very few words. I’ve only read about 100 pages and I feel like I�ve been part of the kids’ adventure for months.

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Plano: Day 2

I haven’t been this exhausted in a while… I didn’t sleep well or long last night, thanks to my own restlessness and the lawn maintenance guys. I woke up pretty early (around 9) and got back to running errands, making phone calls, browsing–furniture, mostly–and buying stuff for my apartment. I’ve spent about $150 at Target over the past couple days and I still haven’t even got pots ‘n’ pans and things like that. All I’ve bought is various soaps, stuff for the bathroom, a Foreman Grill and some other little things I needed.

Seems like furniture shopping’s a little trickier than I’d hoped. I’ve been to a few stores and none of them have exactly what I want–style, color, comfort, price–but all of the stores have some of what I want. I guess compromise will be the name of the game and it ain’t gonna’ be as cheap a game as I’d hoped.

My cable’s turned on, but I don’t have a TV yet, so I’m enjoying looking at the little black chord coming from the wall. I don’t have any idea when my internet will be turned on, so that’s making it even more difficult to do all my shopping and furniture buying and such. Also, I have about 15 “anytime” minutes to get me through next Tuesday (although the weekend will be free, so I’m having a hard time getting a hold of everyone I need to and I’ve been ignoring a lot of calls during the day.

As I’ve driven around Plano, I’ve noticed things that remind me of home and I’m thankful I’m so busy because I’d probably get pretty down if I allowed those things to cause me to stop and think about what I left behind. In fact, even this blog entry is more of a voluntary distraction than a necessity. I find myself taking solace in the fact that I know I won’t be here, doing this, forever.

The Chronicles of Narnia

I finally bought the box set at Christmas Conference, but I wouldn’t allow myself to begin reading them until I was here in Dallas. As I suspected, I’m already having a hard time putting them down; I had to pull myself away to go brush my teeth a little while ago. I’d forgotten how much fun C.S. Lewis’ stories are to read and I’m already totally engrossed in the plot. I’m surprised how similar the basic premise is to Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings stories: people touch gold rings and suddenly disappear; other people look after those with the rings.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to plowing through these books as I’ve been anticipating it for some time now.

Buying stuff

I’m glad I left a week buffer before my start-date to do some shopping and furnish my apartment. Already, I’ve found I haven’t enough time in the day to run all the errands and buy all the stuff I need. I’ve been to Target several times and I browsed several furniture stores today. Best Buy is my new home-away-from-home and I spent a good deal of time looking at stuff in other electronics stores (although, surprisingly, Best Buy has the best prices on basically everything). The thing that is most difficult about shopping right now is that I don’t have an internet connection, so I can’t do the research I usually do. It’s rare that I’ll buy something without spending a fair amount of time browsing the web for specs, reviews and bargains; but, without an internet connection, my only recourse is to drive around looking for stores that might sell the stuff I’m after. I generally have a pen and paper in hand and I just write down whatever I need to remember that piece of furniture or electronic thing, so I can make comparisons later. It’s painstaking, frustrating and pretty imprecise.

But the most frustrating thing is that I’m buying only the things I think I’ll need to feel at home, but I still feel like I’m just blowing money. I mean, I’ll be bringing home a decent paycheck soon, but I’m definitely already spending some of that money before I’ve earned it. I’m not accustomed to spending money I don’t have, but I guess it’s ok to make an exception in this situation. I’m trying to exercise as much self-control as possible, so hopefully it’ll pay off.

Friends

I’m realizing how fortunate I am to have a large group of friends thinking of me back home. I spent quite a while on the phone tonight with several people and I felt very encouraged while I spoke with them. Some friends, I was just shooting the breeze, seein’ what’s up back home; some friends, I was asking for advice on whether to buy this or that; some friends, I was looking for pointers to help me make this transition as smooth as possible. But all my conversations were encouraging to me and made me thankful that I have such good friends who care about me and are praying for me. I’m sure their prayers and concern will make this time much easier for me.

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My obsession with reading…

In my last post, I mentioned a few books on poker that I’ve either read or am reading. As it turns out, I finished the meat of Hold ‘em Poker for Advanced Players today (”meat” meaning everything but the Q&A section at the end and the Appendices) and I’m now going back and summarizing the book in outline form. I decided there was just too much information to glean from even multiple readings and that I needed to have some way of cataloguing the information in the book.

As it turns out, I went to Barnes & Noble today while I was waiting on the Sprint PCS store to update the software on my cell phone. While I was there, I decided to take a look at Phil Hellmuth’s book Play Poker Like the Pros. I read the first chapter and skimmed over the rest of the book, only to find that, as I expected, it just doesn’t seem like my kind of book. Essentially, it doesn’t seem structured enough (and since poker seems like a very structured game, I would like to learn about it in as structured a way as possible). I also looked at the Winner’s Guide to Omaha Poker, by Ken Warren. This book seems to give a pretty good treatment of Omaha (both hi-lo and hi) and he does a good job of comparing and contrasting it to Texas Hold ‘em. I think it’s important to describe Omaha in terms of its similarities and dissimilarities to Hold ‘em because the games are so similar, but play so differently.

But here’s the real diamond in the rough that I found while at Barnes & Noble today: Stephen Hawking: Deluxe Set, which includes The Universe in a Nutshell, and The Illustrated A Brief History of Time–both in hardback. I’ve been wanting to read A Brief History of Time for a while now and I lucked out that I got both these books for $25 American–about 1/3 of the MSRP. So, I’m reading A Brief History… in addition to the poker reading.

I’ve also been reading The World According to Garp, by John Irving, for a while now, although I’ve been slacking on that one lately. I hope to finish it by the end of the semester.

The point of this post is as follows: I caught the reading bug last summer (’02) and, although I still read consistently over the past year, I wasn’t nearly as passionate about it as I was last summer. Over the past few weeks, I’ve begun to read more and enjoy it more. Nerdiest statement ever: I sometimes forget how much fun reading can be. I particularly enjoy the intellectual satisfaction I get from learning something new, and I love a good piece of fiction.

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I hate football

The Gators leave me no other choice. Enough about that.

What’ve I been up to?

Not much. I am taking an easy load of 10 hours this semester and that’s left me with a lot of free-time to waste; so far, I’ve done an excellent job. I have been playing a lot of poker and I’ve been doing pretty well (considering our home game is packed with loose/aggressive players, so the most important aspect of our game is the cards and not necessarily one’s skill). It’s been exciting for me to learn more about the intricacies of the game and it’s been encouraging to see that I’ve improved significantly over the past couple of months. The main reasons for my improvement are found in the following books:

Super System, by Doyle Brunson — read
Caro’s Book of Poker Tells, by Mike Caro — read
Hold ‘em Poker for Advanced Players, by David Sklanksy — reading
The Theory of Poker, by David Sklanksy — reading

The best thing about reading these books is that I’m really developing the analytical part of my game. When I first started playing–a few months ago at a friend’s home game–I had a knack for “reading people”, but didn’t really understand the logistics of the game very well. Through reading these books, I’ve learned more about the mathematical, analytical and strategic aspects of the game. These new aspects, along with my knack for reading people have made me a significantly better poker player. Granted, I have a very long way to go, but I’m making steady progress and that’s all that really concerns me.

I played my first “live” tournament the other night and would have had an excellent shot at winning, had I not caught poor cards most of the night. Essentially, I played two hands:

• 88 in the hole, I make a small, positional raise before the flop, simply to increase potential winnings if I hit a set. Flop came garbage and I folded to a medium sized bet.
• KQs in the hole, I raise about the size of the pot before the flop with two or three callers. A and trash on the flop, I bet about half the size of the pot and am raised to the size of the pot, 3rd player folds, so I’m heads-up with the big stack, I think and call. Turn comes low, I check, player to my right bets, I immediately raise to twice his bet. He hesitates and calls. River comes low, I bet out for about 1.5 times the size of the pot, other player says, “Let’s have a look at you (like he’s a pro, sizing me up)” and then says, “You haven’t played much all night, so you must have something nice” and folds. I guess when he had a look at me, he didn’t see that I had nothing but A-high.

Then, I watched the big stack get bigger for a while (mostly, if not exclusively, on great cards) and ended up three-handed with a shorter stack. Each round of blinds is about 1/7 of my stack, small stack goes all-in before the flop for about 1/3 of my stack and I have KQ, so I call. I lose to A2o. Two hands later–I’m now on the short-stack–I go all-in with QJ and lose to A9s caller. Then I go home.

So, that was my first live poker tourney experience. In retrospect, I may have faired better if I’d been a little more patient when it got to be 3-handed, but I had no way of knowing I’d run up against A’s with cruddy kickers and trigger-happy callers…

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First week of classes is over

I made it to every class and even did most of a homework assignment that isn’t due until Tuesday. I feel like this semester will be a good one for me, academically, and I’m looking forward to getting a lot of extracurricular stuff done. I don’t really think I’ll have all that much “free time”, but I think that, if I manage my available time wisely, I’ll be able to get some things done and, of course, have plenty of time for hangin’ out and goofin’ off as I usually do.

Still reading…

I’m currently reading three books: A Prayer for Owen Meany, Searching for Shcrodinger’s Cat and Heart of Darkness; I’m basically just moving slowly through each of them with no priority on any, but a high priority on finishing all three. I still have a lot of books that I bought on my last Barnes & Noble shopping spree that I need to get to eventually. I hope I can keep reading this semester. I’ve already found a lot of time for reading on the bus everyday on my way to and from campus. Seems like a good use of time to me.

First Gators game

We whooped up on the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) pretty good (51-3, I think). Next week we have Miami at home; that will be our first chance to see what we’re really made of. I think it would be incredible if we can knock off the reigning national champs and one of the current number one ranked teams in the nation. I can’t wait to go to that game.

It’s time for me to go to sleep now. I’m tired and I have church at 10:30 tomorrow morning. This’ll be my first time at my local church in about three months, so I’m anxious to get settled back in.

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Minor change, major difference

Today, I spent some time revamping the song I wrote yesterday. Turns out I actually really like the song now that I’ve changed the style. Basically, I changed the guitar chord voicing to a more open style, allowing the guitar to ring a bit more and compliment the melody I’d chosen. I really like the sound and now I’m just having a little trouble synching the vocals and guitar lick. I’ll probably polish it up this week and record it once I’m home in a couple weeks.

Reading and the Macaroni Grill

Those were the highlights of the day. I read a little more of Body for Life–in fact, I’m basically done with it–and caught some sun while I was at it. The Macaroni Grill was nice, but the server didn’t write his name upside-down on the table. What a let down. Oh, and his name was Julio, so all I could think of was “…me and Julio, down by the school yard…” and that got old after a bit. Apparently, the turned water has found its way into everything including the soda fountains and ice tea makers in some local restaurants. The Dr. Pepper wasn’t really up to par tonight… I’m sure, however, that the caffeine content was super and that means I’ll be spending a few hours playing tag with my pillows before I nod off to sleep tonight. Oh, and note to self: Mama’s trio is an excellent entree at the Grill, especially for the money.

Yoink!

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Two weeks from now…

I’ll be in ATL, GA, hangin’ with two of my good buddies from back at school. These next two weeks will fly by, but they won’t fly quick enough for me. Patience…

Why read?

I decided about a year ago that it was time for me to continue learning with my right brain. Yeah, I learn a lot of useless facts and number-crunching methods in engineering, but those don’t seem to make me any more intelligent in terms of society and personal interaction. Those things don’t help me articulate my thoughts better, they don’t make me a more eloquent speaker, they don’t enable me to share my thoughts concisely, accurately and poetically.

I know a lot of engineers and most of the engineers I know are significantly smarter than I. But, I find that most engineers can’t discuss culture or philosophy or many other things, which I think are key to understanding people and sociology. I think the reason many engineers are not “people people” is that they spend all their time reinforcing their ability to solve problems methodically, crunch numbers, create things by the books and other left-brain dependant activities. I think that they spend a lot of time gathering input, processing it by procedures they’ve been taught to follow exactly and producing a result that can be replicated. I think the problem is that engineers aren’t encouraged to try and produce output without input or methodology. In studying electrical engineering, we’re taught that everything’s a system that has an input and will produce an output. Engineers are trained to be such a system.

I read because I want to remember how to work outside of that “system” philosophy. I want to create without a mold or a template. I don’t see the things I read as a template, but as a catalyst for various parts of my creative self. In reading I find inspiration and a collection of tools, which I can use to help create my own things.

There are many other reasons I read, but that’s probably the most important one. Honestly, I also read just to “get smarter”. I think it’s silly to deny myself the opportunity to learn through such an easy, self-paced, dense, abundant medium as books. Maybe I’ll write more on this later. I don’t feel that I’m really making any particular point. In fact, I feel like I just rambled on about nothing.

Why read what I read?

That one’s a little trickier. I pick things to read based on several criteria: friends’ recommendations, my desire to learn more about a particular subject, my desire to know something about a particular subject, a feeling that I am cheating myself out of some sort of cultural experience by neglecting a certain piece of literature or subject… The list goes on and I have varied reasons for picking any particular book.

For instance, I chose the Schrodinger’s Cat books because, in eleventh grade AP Chemistry, I did a presentation on an excerpt of Searching For Schrodinger’s Cat for our class. I have always been intrigued by Quantum Physics and, since I’ll never have any classes on the subject, I figured I’d read a layman’s explanation to see if I’d like to try and learn more about it. I chose Heart of Darkness because, while we were at Barnes & Noble yesterday, a friend said, “That’s a good one, but I didn’t really appreciate it until after I saw Apocalypse Now.” I chose The Republic because it’s Plato and I feel like I should have read something by the esteemed philosopher.

One drawback…

I’m a slow reader. I mean, I’m not like molasses being poured uphill or anything, but I don’t exactly flip through books like Will in Good Will Hunting either. I’ve never really checked my speed or anything, but I’m pretty sure I’m relatively slow and that can be frustrating, especially when I have a strong desire to take in as much information as possible. It’s frustrating being limited not by desire, but by ability. But then, I think that’s true in most aspects of life.

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Barnes & Noble shopping spree!

I didn’t win one, but I did have one today. I think I spent about $60 total. My purchases (in no particular order):

• In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality, John Gribbin
• Schrodinger’s Kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries, John Gribbin
• The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
• The Republic, Plato
• Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
• Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer, Joseph Conrad
• Caramel Frappuccino, Grande, Starbucks

So, I have a nice stack of books to be working on for a while now. I’ve begun Heart of Darkness and In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat and I’m already reading A Prayer for Owen Meany (I’m almost half through with that one) and I just started Body for Life, which I borrowed from a co-worker.

Why two of the Quantum Physics books? Well, on my first trip to B&N, I asked the guy if he could help me find “Schrodinger’s Cat”, please. He did and I went and bought it along with four other books. As I was about to begin my new book, I realized that it was, in fact, a sequel to another book. I figured I’d better go out and buy the first book before diving into the second.

Anyway, that’s a good summary of my attempts at continuing my education in the midst of a severely boring summer, which is characterized by a job where I spend more time surfing the internet than not.

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I’m on the DL… but for bowling?

That’s right. I was bowling tonight–very inconsistently–and I shanked the ball off of my “plant foot”. Basically, I’m right-handed and that means I plant with my left foot and release with my right hand. Well, I tend to plant my left foot in front of me and the ball and so I usually throw the ball really close to my left foot, often knocking it off my leg or rolling it off my foot. Tonight, though, for the second time, I cracked my ankle bone when I was releasing. That sent a nice shot of pain up through my left side, made me limp around and produced a nice bit of swelling and some scuffed up skin. I bowled the last two frames�all the while with a grimace on my face–and headed to the cash register.

I think the people that work there are starting to get aggravated that I use my “bowl one get one free up to 10 games” coupon every time I’m there which, recently, has been about twice a week. Well, I say “the people that work there” and that’s true, except for the one girl who insists I’m in a league and gives me the “VIP” price and then gives me half off. I’m not sure what that had to do with anything, but there it is!

My scores tonight? 171, 104, 111. You read that correctly… A 70 pin swing from game one to game two. I don’t really know if there’s any particular reason either. I’d like to make an excuse, but I think just saying that I stunk tonight will be sufficient.

Finished A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius last night

I knocked out the final 30 pages before I went to sleep yesterday. All in all, I’d say it was a fine book, but it certainly wasn’t what I’d call “classic” or anything like that. It was autobiographical and the author has some deep-seeded bitterness and pretty much thinks the world owes him something. Granted, his parents both died when he was 21 or 22 and I have no frame of reference for sympathizing with tragedy of that magnitude, so maybe I’m just calloused or ignorant… or both. Either way, it was definitely worth the 14 bucks I spent and I’d recommend it if someone’s looking to read sarcastic, brash, bitter autobiography. It’s also a pretty good story.

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