Just Another Fish

So, last night i spill a little water on my keyboard. today my pc starts going crazy & crashing — waiting till i get involved in a poker hand, of course.

am typing this using the onscreen keyboard, with the real one in bits, being cleaned with surgical spirit…

powered by performancing firefox

I just lost this post when blogsome did something weird when I tried to publish it. Sigh. here we go again:

As I have mentioned, Wednesday is my last day here at the Insolvency Service. I am very glad to get away, but as of yet haven’t found anywhere to go. Durham and the A&L are still possibilities on the horizon (though I’ve not heard anything more about either), but as of Thursday I will, as things stand, be out of work.

I am not looking forward to running out of money, which will happen very, very soon.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $0.02 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

Button ($0.84)
Hero ($4.84)
BB ($4.98)
UTG ($4.66)
UTG+1 ($5.05)
MP1 ($3.05)
MP2 ($2.89)
MP3 ($6.51)
CO ($4.11)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Qd, Ac.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.02, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.02, MP3 calls $0.02, CO calls $0.02, 1 fold, SB raises to $0.16, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.14, MP2 folds, MP3 calls $0.14, CO folds.

Flop: ($0.54) 8h, Qh, 6s (3 players)
SB bets $0.54, UTG+1 calls $0.54, MP3 calls $0.54.

Turn: ($2.16) 5s (3 players)
SB bets $2, UTG+1 raises to $4.35, MP3 folds, Hero calls $2.14 (All-In).

River: ($10.65) 3d (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $10.65

Results in below:
Hero has Qd Ac (one pair, queens).
UTG+1 has 7h 9c (straight, nine high).
Outcome: UTG+1 wins $10.65.

I posted this as a comment in Gillian K’s LJ, and I thought I might as well put it here, too:

I take the standpoint that reality is both fully determined (from an objective POV), and probabilistic (from an internal observer’s POV).

I think about this sort of thing a lot, too:

Our universe is so arbitrary that it is easier (ie, simpler and more elegant) for a multiverse to exist which contains it than for it to exist by itself.

The laws of QM suggest the existence of these universes as a continuation of the wavefunction beyond what we observe (ie, our universe is just one choice of slices among many in the whole multiverse).

Phenomena producing your current mental-state exist in infinitely many of these possible universes. By the whole identity of indiscernibles thing, since it is impossible to distinguish between these universes it is valid to say that you exist in all of them simultaneously.

This cloud of possible realities is unstable: your mind is a dynamic entity and so each change will cause a shift in the cloud. Each observation prunes away the universes which no longer fit (they contain differentiated versions of you, each of which has its own cloud — even the dead ones, which has the trivial, empty cloud).

(I would not be surprised if there is something about the nature of our consciousness that forces some sort of quantum-type interaction between elements of the cloud, and that this is what causes us to perceive a universe that obeys quantum laws, This is a kind of interesting kink on the weak anthropic principle.)

If you die in some universes, there will always have been alternatives in the cloud where you continue to exist. Since it is impossible to experience being dead, you will always experience continuity of consciousness.

Welcome to immortality. Please enjoy your stay.

Yes, it’s nicked off various people’s blogs. But it’s a good’un, so have a go yourself.

If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

So, here’s how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, RHYTHMBOX etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool…
7. When you’re finished tag some other people to do it!

Opening Credits - Kenickie — In Your Car - Certainly not in my car.
Waking Up - The White Stripes — 7 Nation Army - Hmmm. Doesn’t take much to hold me back from waking up…
First Day of School - Beck — Strange Apparition - Yes, I think we can say this one works.
Falling in Love - Lemon Jelly — ‘79 AKA The Shouty Track - That just makes me smile
Fight Song - Suede — Introducing The Band - I rock
Breaking Up - Embrace — Ashes - That’s obviously a nice fit
Prom - KLF — Justified and Ancient - I’m the old geezer at socials? Yup
Life - Space — Neighbourhood - Perfect
Driving - Death in Vegas — Aisha - This was a song about a killer or something, wasn’t it? So, yeah, perfect too
Flashback - Kenny Rogers — She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye
Getting Back Together - Spiritualized — If I Were With Her Now - Awww
Wedding - Mansun — Blown It - I’m laughing again
Party - Garbage — Stupid Girl - Entirely correct and accurate
Birth of A Child - Debussy — Les Jardins Sous la Pluie - My 1st thought was ‘WTF?’, so a nice fit
Final Battle - The Datsuns — Fink For The Man - I hope that’s my opponent and not me….
Funeral Song - Elvis Presley — My Boy - Awww
Ending Credits - dEUS — Let’s Get Lost - Already there!

I just got an e-mail from Durham saying I’d made the shortlist, and can expect to hear about an interview soon. (An overview of the area, Property Testing, is here)

Naturally, I’m excited. This is just the sort of thing I’ve been wanting and, I think, I can prepare for this well and give a good account of myself. One of the problems I had over at Norwich was that I was getting increasingly disillusioned with my own abilities and went in with a rather fatalist attitude. Plus, I didn’t find myself too enamoured of the place. My attitude was completely wrong, in other words.

After that I had resigned myself to failure, and as you can see a £17k admin job had begun to look good. Actually, I’ve got to admit, the idea of earning more money has begun to worm its way into my mind. Yes, I’d love to do this PhD; yes, it would give me more career options than I could shake a banana at; yes, everything! It would just be nice if it came with more money…. Well, I’m just going to have to start becoming a friggin’ poker genius.

So, yes, I’m going to go for this with all my heart. I can do this. There’s been so much talk around MUGSS about getting PhDs lately that I was feeling horribly left-out, and I feel like I’ve broken free of some chains and rushed to the surface to breath some glorious air. And look, it’s sunny outside. The wall of the building opposite is lit-up like the promise of spring.

If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just have to get a job and think about it again later.

Ok, what else? Well, Emma had her 20th party on Saturday, and I found out how expensive it is to drink spirits (this is before you take into account how much people pinch). Still, it makes a nice low-calorie alternative to beer.

Beer. Oh, yeah, that’s right, there was the Winter Ales festival on Friday. It was good, the half-pint tankards were fantastic this year, and I discovered Rochford 10: an 11.3% Trappiste beer which is lovely. We saw an ex-MUGSSian there, Amy Humphreys (?), whom I remember chiefly from a failed (naturally) attempt to chat-up at a party about 3 years ago. She still likes to wear black. There was a curry afterwards at Spicy Hut which contributed to, in the end, a calorie intake that Killer Whales only manage on good days. Since I do not want to be fat in 3 weeks time, I need to start being a little more careful. Hence the spirits at the party.

So, yes, back to the party. Lots of young people around. I remember when I was young. It wasn’t that long ago, but that boat has clearly sailed and I’m stuck in limbo. 30 is not too far away and sometime soon I need to do something about this. A PhD would certainly help.

For the first time in… a long time, a party at Emma’s did not descend into I Have Never, to the relief of all concerned. The party finally died at around 6, so I showed Ian and Mia Brother Professor’s Bible History before walking home.

On sunday was the first MUGSS rehearsal that had anything like a full turn-out. It was fun, and if I can just learn to sing when slightly out-of-breath everything will be fine. Jo’s ambitions for the Blue Men are getting increasingly scary and extreme. The day was extremely wet, and while running to Owen’s Park I managed to cunningly avoid a puddle by jumping into… the same puddle, ehich I hadn’t realised was quite that big. As soon as I got inside it started snowing, too.

This has been a rather long post, so I think I’ll end it here-ish. I am currently considering shifting to Live Journal, as it has a rather nice community aspect to it. (By which I mean, it is very hard for your friends to avoid your posts.)

We finally have the internet back at home. This is good, though it is going through what I hope are just teething problems in dropping the connection frequently. This would be rather bad when playing poker.

Right, I officially have 2 weeks left at my job until they finally get a sucker in to do it permanently. It’s a relief, really. I’ve been doing it for over 15 months while my plans and ambitions dissolved around me, and I need to get out of here. It’s dull, monotonous, incredibly badly-paid and basically a ghastly soul-sucking little thing. The only things that make it at all bearable are the lack of stress (although that is balanced by the stress of still being here), flexitime and internet access (allthough my boss has asked me not to use her for a reference due to my time-keeping and internet-abuse). And, I have to admit, I did have a crush on one of the girls here for quite some time, which didn’t really hasten my departure.

2 weeks. Hmmm. I damn well hope I get something by then. And I really hope it pays a little more than this.

Soon I shall have the internet at home. I can then play poker, organise my music collection properly and sort out the blocking guides for the show. Hurray!

On saturday I was thinking about doing some work on the costumes (not the arch as it did my back in the week before). First, however, Pete, Adrian and I watched Liverpool beat… someone  (I can’t remember who) at The Red Lion. As that finished and we prepared to go, we noticed that the Villa match was about to start. So, I stayed to see us get drubbed 3-1 by Man U, saw Fluffy Nick, and got increasingly drunk. Pete and I then saw most of the Arsenal match in Didsbury (having popped in to Sarah’s for a tea and electronic noise gamery).

On Sunday I made a bacon roast (having discovered it extremely reduced in Sainsbury’s a bit ago) for 6 — Pete & Sarah, myself, Adrian & Emma, Mahinda — which turned out quite nicely. I tried a swede and sweet potato mash, which was good, and also copied my aunt’s carrots with toasted sesame seeds and coriander thing. Also good.

The rehearsal went OK, and I feel I might manage to learn the moves, though my singing is still horribly awful. It will be nice when more people start turning up again, though.

I’m starting to feel the weight on my head of having to sort my future out sometime soon. It’s probably only going to get worse. Oh dear.

Mia started this on her LJ. Blame her.

Reply to this post, and I’ll tell you one reason why I like you. Then put this in your own journal, and spread the love