I think I leave horrible phone messages. You know, bad enough that I continue to cringe for the next 10 minutes as I replay what I said in my mind. Seems like a simple skill, but I'm pretty sure I suck at it.

Of course, the root of my problem is that I am not good with phones. This is actually something I have pondered a bit in the past and here's what I came up with. First off, when you can't see the person you are talking to you lose a huge portion of contextual information about the conversation. Everything becomes more ambiguous, and as i've said before, I am not a big fan of ambiguity in communication so I think I get discouraged. Then there's the fact that phone time is naturally more boring and distracting because you don't even get the best part of the conversation, watching for all the little quirks in people's faces as they laugh or smile or roll their eyes or whatever. Without the good stuff it's so easy to drift off and lose focus, which anyone who's been on the phone with me for more than three minutes would know. I am so bad sometimes that I will essentially forget that I am on the phone with someone while I am doing something on my computer, whoops =(

Now take my obvious phone talking deficiencies and then compound them with the fact that leaving a phone message is like talking to yourself. There isn't even anyone talking back to you so it's like giving a monologue, except that it's unscripted *and* recorded. sigh. I can't think of many things that are a greater recipe for disaster than that.

So, to anyone I happen to leave messages for, I appologize in advance.

"Change your thoughts and you change your destiny."

Well, thanks to Rama's suggestion to check out the Ticket Assassin I managed to get my first ticket dismissed. Wahoo! Once again my record is clean =D

Thanks ticket assassin!

"Your companions are your mirrors and show you yourself."

I don't play a whole lot of poker, but over the past year I've started to play a bit here and there with friends. I always thought that poker was a pretty fun game, but I wasn't hooked until I started playing no-limit hold'em. After watching parts of the 2004 World Series of Poker on tv I started to realize how complex and interesting poker can be, so recently I decided to work on my game and order a few books.

The first couple books I got were David Sklansky's "The Theory of Poker" and Mike Caro's "Book of Poker Tells". As each book arrived I dug in immediately, but about a quarter of the way through each book I could tell I wasn't ready for these books. Caro's book is obviously for people who know how to play poker and are looking to improve their ability to spot tells, and I'm not there yet. Sklansky's book is more along the right lines, but it's not hold'em specific, and so much of it is theory that I got the feeling the info wasn't going to sink in until I had a little more experience. So I decided to try some other books.

I bought both of Dan Harrington's books on "Hold'em: Expert Strategy for no-limit tournaments". Jackpot. I tore into the first book getting about a third of the way through in only a couple days. This book is perfect for anyone starting out in no-limit hold'em. Harrington breaks down the theories in easy to manage chunks, focusing on just the most important elements like playing strategies, calculating odds, betting patterns, and some basic reads on the table. He walks you through scenerios making sure you are thinking about the right things along the way. Best of all, each chapter wraps up with a set of problems which are brilliant. As you get further along in the book the problems become the bulk of the material, and rightly so because they offer enormous amounts of information about how to think about all the steps that happen in the course of a single hand.

Over the weekend I got my first chance to test my new found knowledge and it worked wonders. I could have just been getting lucky, but finishing first, then second in our two tournaments is about all I could ask for. I might have even won the second tournament if I had been willing to be a bit more patient, but it was 3:30 in the morning and I decided to push, which was bad because my opponent ended up getting monster hands in heads up play. KK and 33 (then flopping a set) in the span of about 4 hands. how?

I've only read through Harrington's first book and I am eagerly awaiting my chance to dive into the second book, but consider this a strong recommendation.

"Do not give up, the beginning is always the hardest."

See, this is what I was alluding to when I was dismissing the video ipod. As read on slashdot, Tv on Mobiles? Not there Yet? I think it's quite obvious that the market for portable video is vastly different than the market for portable audio. The fact is that a relatively small number of people have a desire for portable video, and that's why just slapping some video playback on an ipod is not going to drive the sales of ipods.

Highly Recommended Reading. This is a great book for anyone interested in understanding more about the history of societies and more specifically, how humans evolved from hunter/gatherer societies into the modern domestic societies which cover pretty much the entire planet today. My dad originally turned me onto this one and it had been in the book queue for about a year until I got hooked on audiobooks and finally got through it.

It's a pretty intense read, so be prepared. I ended up with the abridged audiobook form and I loved it. It only took me a few days to get through the whole thing (6 hours) and I believe it was far easier to listen to than it would have been to read. The book is chalked full of history explaining the evolution of humans around the planet, how humans expanded to different continents, and ultimately why some societies became the most dominant on earth. All fascinating stuff.

In addition to Guns, Germs, and Steel I would also recommend The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell, the two books actually complement each other very well. The Tipping Point does't really focus on history or societies, but it does explore and breakdown those exact times in history when things seemingly start to "tip" and result is massive change. I'm sure that Jared Diamond would agree that there were "tipping points" in the history which affected the evolution of societies.

"An optimist is always able to see the bright side of other people's troubles."