Where to Find Wi-Fi
Posted on February 18, 2007 by Ching under Flickr, Web.
This just goes to show that you can find wi-fi at the most unexpected places. I had to check email before poker a couple of weeks ago but I wasn’t anywhere close to home. I had only a brief period to eat and check email before poker and I wasn’t anywhere near a good internet connection. I was at Ah-So II, this hole in the wall resto on the South side of town.
I was desperate so I took a chance. Lo and behold, there was unsecure wireless broadcasting from somewhere. It worked perfect. I got a bite to eat and was able to catch up on email. So now I’m on mission to find other places with free internet access.
Here’s what I have so far:
Ah-So II
The Bean Scene
Fox and Hound
Holiday Inn locations (Express, Select, and Wichita Airport)
Java Villa Cafe
Orient Espresso
The Vagabond
IHOP
Watermark Books and Cafe
La Quinta at the Wichita airport
Wichita State University*
*NOTE: The wireless connection at the WSU campus is free but it requires that your MAC address be registered. Instructions are available here. Please feel free to add your own list of free wireless internet locations. Let’s grow this list together! 🙂
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I Cant Sleep!
Posted on February 9, 2007 by Brian under Family, Life, Poker.
Well here it is at 7:30 in the morning and I cant sleep. Usually when my wife goes off to work i have no problem getting back to sleep and having happy happy dreams of us together, but today i cant get back to sleep. I went to bed around 1:00 in the morning (playing WOW to wind down from a long day at work) and woke up to my wife getting upset because the alarm didn’t go off and the dog was barking for some reason. It was important that she get up early because she had a training class that she is teaching and she had to be there early because it starts at like 7:30. This isn’t the first time our alarm has let us down, it has conveniently not gone off several times in the past (usually i get blamed for it). Thank god the dog barked! We don’t know what she was barking at, maybe the cats were fighting outside the door, maybe the dog had a bad dream or maybe Molly is just smart enough to know that Ching had to be up early and the alarm didn’t go off so she was looking out for her. Either way, thank god for the dog.
I’m excited about tonight, actually i am excited about this weekend. Tonight we have poker! Last week i went to the 10:00pm game, something that we normally don’t do because lately neither of us have made it far enough to be in the invite for the final session. Last week though Ching made it to the final 16 and earned a seat so we stayed for the final session. I showed up late because i am still working second shift (thank god only more week of that crap) and got short chipped and sat at a table. It was going well, i was playing smart and the cards were falling pretty good. Ching got knocked out and thought that i would be right behind her shortly. She went and got her home work and did that for a while and when she noticed that i was not going to go out right away she decided that she was going to leave. I told her that i probably wasn’t far behind (i only had a few chips left) and she told me to keep trying and she would see me when i came home. Several min later i was sure i was going to leave when I went all in with a medium hand, but I survived. I did it again and again till i had built up a substantial Chip stack. I text messaged Ching and told her that i was down to 4 people, several min later i told her it was 3. About 15 min later i told her i was heads up. The guy i was heads up with was someone i had only played a few times. We did the whole all in and fold thing a couple of hands. Then i just wanted to go home and he decided to go all in pre-flop with a King 4 off-suite. I had 6 7 suited. I was like “Sure, why not” call his all in and laid my cards down. He went on the usual poker person rant about how dominated i was and everything. He rolls out the cards and it was 5 4 queen. I had 4 to the straight. He said nothing and dealt the turn, it was trash. the final card was a three, i could see the disappointment on his face before i ever saw what the card was and knew i had won. He went on about how i sucked out and how i shouldn’t have won that blah, blah, blah! What it really comes down to is odds! I had more outs than he did heads up. I could have hit a 6, 7 or any number of spades for the winning hand, not to mention the straight. He had the king and the 4 and that was it. I was ecstatic to win, i immediately called the wife and started yelling “I WON, I WON”. the 2nd place finisher was still standing next to me but i didn’t care. I had won my first APL evening in several years. I tried to repeat that performance at the Blue Collar game on Sunday, but the poker gods weren’t having it. Hopefully with any luck i will place again tonight, if not i at least have the satisfaction of knowing that i won one finally, even if it is the only one i win for the next three years.
Tomorrow is going to be great. First Ching and i have a date at a local massage place for a couples session. I look forward to the relaxation and at the same time I am leary because its a new place and i am unsure of the quality. We are taking a break from Healing waters after they pissed me off so much at Christmas. I really hope this place is good cause its much cheaper and its right next to our house. Later in the evening we are meeting my parents for dinner at a place called Strouds to celebrate my promotion to CSA at work. Ching and I haven’t been there since our wedding reception, almost 5 years ago. All in all it should be a fun and hopefully very relaxing day.
Well i am running out of ideas to blog about so i am going to either play some WOW or try to go back to sleep (I still have to work later), i haven’t decided which. I was hoping that blogging would work like reading and make me sleepy, it works for my wife so i figured it should work for me.
So far I’m still wide awake and wishing my wife was here with me to cuddle with.
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Bad Karma
Posted on February 6, 2007 by Ching under Flickr, Life, School.
Good people experience bad karma, too — especially when they make bad choices. Yes, friends. I got busted.
For a couple of semesters now I’ve been parking illegally on campus. At first I’d only do it only once in a while. Most of the time on game nights. With the advent of Wichita State men’s basketball’s recent winning streak the popularity of basketball has increased. More people attend the basketball games than ever before. Usually game nights are plagued with chaos and anarchy in the parking lot so parking illegally is often excusable. Well, it’s the least of the campus police’s worries. Besides, usually there’s no where else to park. Actually, during the last home game even the faculty lot that I got accustomed to parking in was full so I had to scavenge for a different parking spot.
Anyway, getting away with it only encouraged the bad behavior. It came to a point when I would park in my favorite lot even on regular nights just because it was so covenient. A utilitarian at heart, I rationalized the behavior by telling myself that the ends justified the means. Okay, so maybe in this situation I may have let the hedonist side of me win but hey, we can’t all be good one hundred per cent of the time. To me a shorter trek to class was worth the risk of getting busted (particularly with the temperatures as cold as they have been). Or so it seemed, when I was getting away with it.
I am not really an unethical person. On the contrary, I’m probably one of the most straight-laced people you will ever meet. I have a great respect for rules — except of course when they cause me to walk through a frozen tundra for ten minutes at ten o’clock in the evening.
Kidding aside, one of the guys in Accounting class actually made a really astute observation a couple of weeks ago. He said that unethical behavior has more to do with opportunity rather than one’s character. He said, given a situation in which it is relatively easy (or convenient, in my case) to behave unethically and there is a slim likelihood of getting caught, ethical and unethical individuals have about the same predisposition to behaving unethically. He further stated that research has shown that in these situations, ethical people are just as likely as the unethical people to commit an unethical act. So you see, even good people fall prey to compromising situations.
As for me, I’ve learned my lesson. No more parking in faculty lots no matter how cold it is. The ends may justify the means but, at $60 a pop, this poor girl doesn’t have the means to continue to pay for any more parking fines.
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Avoiding Job Burnout
Posted on January 31, 2007 by Ching under Life, School.
Steve talked about job burnout at length in MIS class today. I can’t remember how he tied it into our current topic but he managed to bring it up. I think it was because we were talking about corporate structure and being a group of MBA students pretty much everyone’s goal is to reach the top of the hierarchy. He made the observation that what happens too often is that people end up burning out before getting there. I suspect that’s probably true.
Anyway, all throughout his ten minute tirade about avoiding burnout and not worrying about things that will eventually take care of themselves (which reminds me of something that Brian might say; along these lines, Brian has preached to me that I shouldn’t worry about things beyond my control many, many times) I felt like he was talking directly to me. How did he know that I was experiencing huge amounts of job stress? I know I’m pretty transparent but was it really that obvious? Of course, the world doesn’t revolve around me. I know it only seemed this way because work has been stressing me out a lot lately. Regardless of what the case may be, it got me thinking.
What is burnout exactly? Burnout is what happens when run yourself ragged at work. It’s when you have so much work to do and not enough time to recover. Some of the symptoms include but are not limited to taking your work home with you, taking your frustrations out on your partner, waking up in the middle of the night from work nightmare—which I’ve actually done. I had a dream that I didn’t get my time tickets done because I was stuck in an all-day training class that I could not get out of.. Weird, huh? Although, I’ve exhibited mild versions of some of the symptoms of burnout I refuse to think I am. Maybe I’m in denial but for the sake of this blog entry let’s agree that I’m not experiencing job burnout (not yet, anyway). So think of this post as some sort of preventative measure.
You can find out more about burnout here. It’s pretty informative. It gives helpful information about how to differentiate stress from burnout. Even though burnout and stress sometimes go hand-in-hand they’re not necessarily the same thing. Anyway, some of their ways of dealing with job burnout, like looking for a new job or requesting a transfer, may not be feasible for most people.
Mindtools has a special section on burnout. They have a burnout self-test as well as articles on how to avoid and recover from burnout. You can also check out these burnout busters from friedsocialworker.com.
One of the things commonly suggested to combat burnout is do something that you enjoy—get a fun hobby. Brian actually suggested that I start working out again. He said that I was a lot less stressed when I used to workout because I had an outlet for my stress and frustrations. I currently don’t have one so he thinks that I am bottling everything up inside me which is truly unhealthy.
Working out again might not be such a bad idea. I’ve actually been asked if I’m expecting twice now. That only tells me one thing. I have gained so much weight that I’m beginning to look pregnant. By resuming my gym membership I might just kill two birds. We haven’t decided to renew our membership yet. I’ll keep you posted.
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WOW, This Game is Addictive
Posted on January 29, 2007 by Ching under Flickr, Games, Poker.
Pun intended. He he.
I have been playing a lot of WOW
I’m still digging poker but I haven’t been doing as well. Although, not always placing as high doesn’t mean that your game is sliding. To be honest, I think I’m playing way better than I have ever played in the past. I’m learning to read my opponents better… Before I used to just play according to the cards I’m holding. Now I find myself taking advantage of my position, the situation, my opponents weak plays etc.
Playing really good poker isn’t always enough, though. Sometimes it takes luck. Case in point, my final hand at APL last friday. I called the blind with pocket 8s in the dealer position. One of the blinds (I can’t remember if he was small or big) raised. It wasn’t a big raise. It was a medium-sized raise. Calling the raise with only pocket 8s may have been somewhat of a loose call, but I figured I had position. So I thought that if I missed, I could bail. The raise wasn’t that big so—no harm, no foul. But if I hit, cha-ching! Right?
Anyway, the flop came 2, 4, 10 rainbow. My oponent raised to $1500 but I could tell from his mannerism that he was simply trying to buy the pot. I put him on two high cards, maybe ace-king, ace-queen, or ace-jack even. I could tell he missed but he was putting me to the test. So even though the plan was to bail if I missed, I felt that my 8s were good in this situation. I only had $2400 left so I re-raised him by going all-in.
He thought about it for a long time until he decided to call. Even though I had him, I think calling was the right decision because it was only $900 more to him. He had the opportunity to knock out a player and he had two overs—he was holding ace-jack.
Naturally, I turn an ace which resulted in my demise. So much for my impeccable read. The problem with this hand is that I didn’t have enough chips to push him out. I think if I had enough chips to threaten his tournament life then I think it might have made for a tougher decision to call. Then again, with such loose players at APL who’s to say he would not have called regardless.
At any rate, it helps to get lucky sometimes. No worries, though. I know that my game is improving. I’ll get him next time.
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