monday bingo

every monday morning at work there is a meeting. it holds up to 15 people and lasts up to 90 minutes. my presence is obligatory, yet my presence is completely unnecessary.
yesterday, i went the entire 50 minutes (it was shorted than usual) without uttering a single word. the best part is no one noticed. I wonder how many weeks i can get away with this for. if i do this for long enough, can i then stop turning up without anyone noticing? an interesting social experiment. i honestly believe i could not turn up for a day and no one would notice. in fact, next week i am having a day off, and i wonder if i could pretend i was there all day....

cooking

cooking is quite boring. however, i am learning to cook more. and while the boredom hasn't decreased, my interest in going to restaurants has decreased. paying way over the odds for food i can make just as well seems very -ev. sure, there's the atmosphere, and the going out that have value. but i'd rather spend the money on fun things like holidays, track days, and many other experiences which will be new to me.
i think i'm going to do a track day as soon as i find a decent one near enough to me.
also i want to go to a rifle range.
i don't want to become an expert at any of these things. i just want to try new things. and also it's getting warm outside so going out is now a lovely option of which i must make the most of.

skiiiing

i think the number one attribute you need to be good at skiing is having the part of your brain that processes fear removed.
anyone that does ski racing is especially mentally challenged.

i am, yes, a little bit envious as I am mostly still learning how to stop. or more precisely, being confident that i can that stop when i want to. Of course, didn't stop me doing some parts of black runs on the mountains which are traditionally reserved for those people who have a desire to laugh in the face of death.
i am not one of those people.

it's all very well pushing the limits in poker to see and learn where the boundaries are. the worst that will happen is you'll lose a few hundred big blinds. not quite as easy to do when the consequences change to falling off a mountain. or flying head first into big trees.

after 4 days of avoiding death i almost began to enjoy it and wanted to go a bit faster. sadly, it was hometime.

maybe i'll go again soon...

tyred

i am currently tired pretty much all the time.
not sleeping doesn't really help. i seem to get about 5 hours a day, waking up ever earlier. i'm sure i read once that humans naturally move to a 25 hour cycle. i seem to be on a 23 hour cycle, waking up an hour before my alarm each day, and then going to bed slightly earlier the next night.
i'm on holiday next week and plan to reset this through the copious ingestion of alcoholic beverages.

i still haven't played any poker for a long while. busy setting up a company which hopefully can lead to retirement in 5 years time. a company that actually does useful work. eventually (couple of years time) for improving education is the plan. early stages for now, and hopefully can discuss it in more detail in some months time when things are happening.

right now, have many other things to worry about including, women, money, moving flat, not being able to afford to buy a house ever, and learning many more things like how to use access properly, as well as c++ and other languages, such as the language of wimmen.

anon

one thing that was important to me when starting this blog was the anonymity. i like the idea of being able to type freely without any real fear of consequences. however, something has always prevented me from making full use of this and as far as i can tell it's the idea of one day losing said anonymity.

i could for example, have spoken of how the first girl i ever loved crushed my heart and how it took far too long to get over. to the point that my next proper girlfriend had no idea that i still thought about her. (except i think she did).

or i could have written about how i had to move back home after running out of money making from both PhD studies and poker. I still don't have a full idea of where the money went!

hopefully i shall become less afraid in future.

things they don't teach you

how to walk properly
how to talk properly
how to stand properly
how to sit properly
how to iron.

i've seen lots of surveys* which ask about why people get married. i'm sure they're always devised by men. there's always the standard answers like sex, money, love etc. but the real reason men marry women, which they conveniently ignore as they don't want to let the secret out, is because ironing a shirt is a ridiculous experience. men make shirts, and wear shirts and sometimes even wash shirts. but only soldiers iron shirts because they get threatened with a gun to the face.


*surveys in the loosest sense of the word. i'm sure they just ask about 20 people in the street and make up a bunch more. i've never been asked about any survey ever. although, if they did try to ask me i would politely inform them i have no time for them.

**this was in my drafts folder but i thought i'd already posted it. apologies if i have. but only minor apologies as it made me laugh a little and hopefully you too.

i literally have no idea how people blog every day. is there that much to talk about?

that may have felt like the title was going to be all, but i do actually have something to write today! not much though, don't get too excited.

i was in the gym today and they have the tv on with subtitles. the news was on and talking about matthew something famous about his new film coming out where he had ot play a guy who got aids. they talked about his method acting and his many months spent getting into the role. subtitles made it funny because they spoke about how "he had to lose £47" for the role. all i could think was i would accept many millions of points in exchange for £47.
i can't tell if it's automated or they have a fast typist doing subtitles. i think it's people as they correct some mistakes that are made...

in other work related news, i think i've said this before, but it seems to be contagious and more and more people at work keep saying yourself instead of you.
most people i can tolerate but when people try to sound clever but only succeed in making themselves sound moronic, i can't help but want to avoid them at all costs.

now, i need to go to the shops. haven't been for weeks. i have literally no idea what or how i've been eating.

breaking bad

i watched season 1 of this when it first came out. i didn't like it. at all. i didn't realise that years later i would be ostracised for making this decision. So i have since started finishing it thanks to netflix. netflix is amazing. breaking bad is not. mainly because i just don't care about the characters at all. there were 2 i liked in all of the show. the rest were just annoying, insignificant, or worse: inconsistent.
from about season 3 it became more watchable. however, i just don't understand the hype. sorry.

!

dunno how my daily posting attempt went so tits up so quickly. though i think alcohol probably (definitely) had something to do with it. and not just out drinking, i also made the bestest mojito's i'd ever made. i went for applegate rum in the shops. i think it was the pretty bottle which attracted me. and it turned out the rum is rather good too.

you'd think after about 5 days i'd have something to say. i don't. not really. i think i'm just gonna do this here brief post and try to get back on it tomorrow.

books

i have once again started reading. libraries are pretty awesome. but i see so many books i want to read that i run out of time. i try to read one good book and one entertainment book at the same time. for entertainment i been reading the jack reacher books. they're pretty easy to read and also quite good. the latest proper book i'm reading is "thinking fast and slow". it's pretty slow going as i need to spend time digesting what's in the book. so i think i'm gonna buy it. i've noticed lots of the ideas about how you think is built upon my jared tenlder's "the mental game of poker".

off to do some reading now before sleep. i think it's quite terrible how i've become less and less nocturnal. i liked waking up late. the sacrifices one makes to have a job in order to live in a tiny flat with lovely food eh? i think i need to start doing more to be able to enjoy a better quality of life. (and on that note, maybe i'll play 5 minutes of gta before reading...)

sweaty betty

i went to the gym today at work. after the gym, my body takes ages to readjust so whether i have a hot or cold shower, afterwards i find myself sweating quite a lot for about 10-15 minutes.
there's an episode in seinfeld where george complains about the same thing. he goes to work after the gym and he goes to a meeting where they're trying to find someone whose been stealing things from work and George is sweating uncontrollably like he is nervous so they accuse him.

as i got back from the gym today, my boss comes up to me to ask about some work i'm doing for him that i was trying to finish last week. as i defend the increase in length in time taken i notice he's looking down a my shirt. after our conversation i look down and even i am surprised by how covered in sweat my shirt is. i must have looked ridiculously nervous. all i could think about afterwards was how this is no good as a comedy sketch because seinfeld and LD got there first.

insurance scam

recently i have learnt of this scam undertaken by insurance companies to bleed you drier.

a car hits yours while you are driving. the other driver takes all responsibility. they sort out their car through their insurance and any damage to your car too. you are lucky as yours is quite light. you may not even worry too much about making a claim. perhaps you even say to the other driver that aren't concerned with making a claim if it pushes up their insurance.

a couple of weeks go by and you get a call from some vehicle company who claim to act on the other driver's insurance company. they have your details so it seems legit. they say you can claim money! yay. you say no thanks. they seem shocked. they say, go for it, it's free money! you ask - can you confirm it won't increase the costs or the insurance premium of the other driver? they put you on hold.

they play terrible music.

they come back to you and say, yes, that is correct. you ask for that in writing.
you have to send them an email and in it, you request again, for confirmation in writing that it won't affect the value of the claim to the other driver or their premiums.
a few weeks later you get a cheque for a couple of hundred pounds. you never got a reply in writing.

a few more weeks, perhaps months go by and you renew your car insurance. all the other quotes are much higher than your renewal with your same company so you stick with who you've got.

a few more weeks go by and they email you to tell you that you lied when filling out your form and are gonna add 50% to the premium. you call them, and they say it's because you didn't mention the claim.
well, you did. and they check their phone records, confirm this, and waive the fee.

it turns out, they should have charged that amount, it's just the person on the phone renewing it made a whoopsie.

this got me thinking. you get hit by another car, so your insurance premiums go up?? apparently, people that get claims for being hit, then go on to make claims against their own insurance more often, so the premium goes up.

i want to know how it's possible for a third party company to be so pushy in getting you to claim a small amount of money, knowing that the insurance premiums for at least one if not both parties will increase, and not be up front about it when questioned.
i want to know if the insurance companies are behind this attitude to encourage people to claim, knowing this means that they can get more in the long run.
i want to know what happens if you don't take any money for a claim when you get hit. if you still mention it, do you still get a premium increase?
i want to know if this is common knowledge? do people know that if they get hit, everything goes through the other party's insurance, their own insurance premium will go up?

so many questions. i may have to write to watchdog.

a quick hello

i think this will be a quick post. again i missed the last couple of days. my final sentence in this here post will explain where i've been, what i've been doing, and why my posting attempts were absent.

i am about to watch the football. manchester united vs chelski. and for the first time i can remember, i will be cheering on the detestable manchester united. i play bridge with some man united fans. for the last couple of years their incessant gloating has become intolerable. as they are too young to remember pre ferguson days, they are now afraid. what is most interesting however, will be how they now respond to gloating at their expense. after dishing it out for a while, i would like to see their response now.

i don't get women.

another day, another missed day

2 days of news. still not much to report.
today i drove into the countryside. i remember driving before gps on phones. i remember driving before gps at all. armed with a simple map, you had to juggle looking at that and the road. using road names where possible as markers to keep an eye on your progress. it was arduous and no doubt rather dangerous. today was a breeze in comparison. the main difference i find was i used to be better at committing to memory all the places i went. nowadays, like phone numbers, i don't bother to remember any since there's no need. I wonder if this lack of practice makes me worse at remembering, or declining age (increasing years) make this something i am naturally worse at?

i've started reading books again. i have about 10 books on shelf awaiting to be read. it's funny that the written word can be shared without it's value being extracted. it's like your brain makes a copy of the information without increasing the total energy available in the world. makes sense when i think about it that way.

the book i just finished was called 'sugar blues' and was written in the 70s. it's mental. it's interesting. and it's mental. scientific theory is pronounced based simply on a single anecdotal story told to the author. that is often enough evidence for him. there is no doubt a lot of what's written is sensible. It's just very hard to believe it all when it's so unscientific. it's quite motivating in terms of making me want to eat less sugar. anything that does that is surely good.

next up on the list are 'fear and loathing in las vegas' (i didn't like the film so much so i can barely rmemeber it) and 'fast and slow thinking' which may require purchasing since i need to take it back to the library soon.

i'm gonna stop typing as my wrists are hurting again. i'm even typing with my keyboard on my lap and it's no good. i think in need a proper desk/chair combo.

till tomorrow. i hope. (two missed days this week, hopefully but one next week, and none thereafter)

Mobile posting

Well, judging by the reviews, it seems the blogger app is awfully bad and so I am going via chrome to write this today. I do hope that it works.

I find that writing extensively on a phone keyboard gets tiresome rather quickly and takes far longer than using a real keyboard. The one rather enormous benefit is autocorrect. This can be used to explain any and all typos, misspellings and grammatical errors.

Today was rather an uneventful day. I went to the gym and used a TRX thing. It's basically a couple of handles you pivot against a door to do exercises with your body weight as the weight. The gun surprisingly had one but in pieces and the lady didn't know how to set it up since she left a piece out back. As she web too get help to get it sorted a man (old) said to me with disdain in his voice "what you doing that for?! Just use some weights"
I replied merely to say I weigh more than any of the weights"
He still didn't shut up but I ignored him. I couldn't help but notice him later on as he stood over me watching me doing one legged lunges and squats.
He was a grumpy dickhead.

On the way home I think I only swore about 7 times today. About 4 of them were just in my head. I think that's an improvement. If I can continue to be less angry about all the duck yards then maybe I will trust myself to play some more poker. I need to as I need a new car. Mine is literally falling apart. Doesn't help that when I took it to the garage he forgot to screw all the panels back in properly. I'm never going back to him.

blogger is trying to stop me!

honestly, i posted the previous words yesterday. or so i thought.

anyway, that means a double serving for today as i will post today's today too.

today's will be brief and centred around that time of the morning where you wake up. you alarm yourself into consciousness and then spend the next minutes snoozing in 9 minute intervals if you own an iphone. why 9 minutes is the snooze time, i do not know. i would like to change it to 10 as that is a much more wholesome number but i do not know how.
so my alarm went off at the unearthly hour of 640 this morning. well, 635 to be precise. i hit snooze for what would be the only time. at 644 i hit turned the alarm off, and took the phone in hand, to read some internet for a couple of minutes while i psyched myself up to get on with the unenviable task of getting up and going to a bathroom colder than an igloo in the north pole. literally (see 2).

however, my imminent attempts at checking the internet were usurped by a loud banging at the door. as with all loud noises, i assumed it was the neighbours because this is what they do. both front doors are probably within 5 metres of my head so i assumed it to be the next door door that someone was trying to bash in. then some loud knocking started and with teh echoing down the hallway and to the bedroom door to give surround sound, i realised that it was in fact my front door.

no good news ever arrives by loud door banging at 645am. i thus decided to not answer the door. the banging went on for a bit. some letterbox peeking ensued followed by someone saying out loud "it's pitch black in there"
well, obviously it is. it's 650am. i the metallic sounds against wood as something got shoved through the letterbox. i hoped it was merely a letter and nothing more offensive. i heard someone trudging away and waited a minute till i got up. i decided against turning on most lights for a bit in case they waited out front to see if any lights came on.

the upshot is that i ended up at work quite early as i didn't lie in bed for 30 minutes till getting up. every cloud, eh?

i am a failure

It may look like I have already failed to blog every day after just one day. And that's because I have. There are no excuses. I simple forgot. I remembered at the wrong time and wrote a post in my head. I don't think that counts. (I could be wrong, though). Then last night I was going to post it. I forgot again. I think I need a reminder on my phone. It would be easiest if there was an app that let me post directly from my phone. I will have to check that out.

Friday was uninspiring. I arrived at work stupidly early. 730am early. I don't like early starts. Most of my colleagues have finally learnt i arrive at 840 and leave at 440. With a trip to the gym during the day. The car park was incredibly empty when I arrived and yet there were many more cars than I had expected for a Friday at such an hour.
For one reason at least 730 was an excellent time to arrive, and that was the international space station making a pass overhead and with beautiful blue skies I planned to stare at it briefly. With not a single cloud or star in the sky it still took me a good minute to locate it. Just a little bright star-like object moving across the sky at a constant and relatively fast pace.
As I arrived in the office, I pass through two sets if doors. Like an air lock. It's a useful place to make phone calls as no one can hear what your saying unless they're walking through. As I was in this air lock, I see 3 colleagues sitting there. The loudest of the three sees me. The surprise is etched on her face. And then a cry so loud even I can hear her shout "bloody hell"
The only other horror show of the day was the sheer number of Johnson's being thrust around openly in the gym. I'm not the biggest fan of seeing cocks. Nothing against them, mind. I have one. I just don't need to have it literally waved around in my face.

As for my writing of this, I am currently sat on a train after getting the wrong branch on the northern line as I belatedly head in to London Town. I just saw two people who I can only describe as heavy drug users trying REALLY hard to not give the impression that they are heavy drug users. They have failed.

the time has come

30 days. a post a day. mostly in the evenings. sometimes in the mornings. days will end when i go to sleep.

i don't like the sound of my own voice, and find my own stories quite boring. the end never surprises me. i tried explaining this to my girlfriend who says that i don't bore her. so i tried to bore her but she still seems interested by the mundane occurrences in my life and how i tell them. allegedly.

i read a while ago a great story about ricky gervais as a kid where he would write fanciful stories in english lessons and get bad marks. his teacher always told him to write about things that happened to him. so to spite her he eventually wrote the most boring story he could that had happened to him. something about visiting his gran if i recall correctly. when he got his boring story back, it was marked with an A and his best result. hashtag heartwarming.

so for the next thirty days i will attempting to bore the pants off you. especially if you're a pretty lady. (i won't. i have a lady, thank you kindly).

today i drove to work. driving is like poker - most people are dicks. on the way to work i swore 9 times. 6 f****s, 1 c**** and 2 dickheads. on the way back i only swore 6 times! today was a good day.

i haven't been to the gym all week. i like going to the gym as it takes away from work time. tomorrow i think i will try and go first thing in the morning and do somem cycling. my belly is getting very tubbs. i can still see my feet so it's not terrible, but i need to drop a kilo or so of fat i reckon.

anyway, that's enough for today. need to save some topics of conversation if i'm gonna do this every day for 30 days. that said, i think the low-functioning people i work with could provide consistent doses of entertainment.

(1/30 - complete)

has anyone seen the yaks?

he seems to have hit radio silence. this is worrying. but mostly sad that i don't get to read his words.

on the roads in england they have changed the rules so that if you don't drive on the left of multiple carriageway roads you can get a fine and 3 points. this is great! well, it would be.
it was the yak who said there are 2 things necessary for a law to be useful. i forget one, but the other was that it needs to be enforced/enforceable.

this rule, is completely and utterly unenforceable. so while it would be lovely if all the idiots drove on the lefttermost lane, they still refuse to in case they catch a disease or something and are happy to slow everyone else down.

what they will do sooner or later is put gps in everyone's car and then you can automatically see who doesn't drive properly and then remove them from the roads. although i expect that driverless cars will be a reality before that occurs. and that will be relaxing and efficient and safer!

obsession and resolution

they sound like names for calvin klein aftershaves. they probably are.

i find obsession quite easy. i get obsessed by things frequently. people, ideas, work. only my obsessions tend to not last long enough to see things through till conclusion so i can start a great many awesome things but find it tough to finish. this resolution of stuff is what i need to work on.

i tried doing things for 30 days but couldn't even manage that to begin with. so i'm doing 1 week at a time for now. then i'll move on to 2. then 4.
so last week, for a full week i managed to avoid all possible glucose. so no chocolates, sweets etc. i had a little in bread but then buying sugar free bread is super tough. on the plus side i actually noticed my belly being slightly less fat after that. so that was good, but i don't think i want to live like that forever so i just need to buy a bike and a trainer. if you live in london and want to sell a decent bike let me know! otherwise ebay/gumtree it is.

one day soon i plan to start (and finish) doing a blog post every day for 30 days...