Bingeing on podcasts

Consumption of podcasts during my commute to Crown Casino has become a regular part of my day. And I've found that there are more than enough podcasts out there to fill my commute hours. I'm not sure I want to discover any more podcasts just now as I've got more than enough to keep my ears busy for now.

This time last year the only podcast I would regularly consume, and consume poorly at that, was The Thinking Poker Podcast. Last year I would have other distractions happening that would mean a lack of focus on the content delivered by Andrew Brokos and Nate Meyvis.  Now that I consume my podcasts away from my desktop computer, and mostly while walking or on the train/tram, I find my ability to focus on the material is much better and therefore I engage with the podcast in a deeper way. Which is a good thing given the increased level of consumption.

Poker Related:

• Thinking Poker Podcast. Great strategy content and great thinkers about the game. Usually an interesting guest each week.
• Outouter.com "Ask Alex" weekly podcast where Barry Chalmers has a chat Alexander "Assasinato" Fitzgerald each week. Alex usually has a rant, then he settles down and Barry asks Alex some questions from the podcasts audience. Some very good poker content and I've grown to enjoy some of Alex's rants. Went off and found this podcast after listening to an interview of Alex on the thinking poker podcast
• Red Chip poker podcast by James "Splitsuit" Sweeney. A fellow poker player at Crown recommended the Red Chip training materials to me. And while I have yet to check out any videos or sign up to the site, the podcast is free and useful. 
• Smart Poker Study Podcast by Sky Matsuhashi. Almost too energizer bunny positive. Possibly a cultural thing where American listeners might like that particular style of hyper positivity. But there has been some useful information in some relatively short, sharp and sweet podcast episodes. Found this podcast after being alerted to it by one of Alex Fitzgerald's weekly emails.

 Other:

• Better Off Dead series by Andrew Denton. This podcast series examines the legal, medical and human situation in Australia with respect to end of life choices for people who are experiencing unbearable  suffering. A great in-depth examination of the Australian issues along with an examination of assisted dying laws in the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States state of Oregon. Andrew Denton is one of my favourite Australian media people and this series once again show cases his talent. Highly recommended.
• Tim Ferris's podcast. Alex Fitzgerald keeps making reference to information he sourced from this podcast series. So eventually, after hearing Alex make reference for the nth time, I chose to listen to one or two episodes. Some great interviews. But they can be long. Up to two hours in some cases. So be prepared to  split the listening time in two for some of these podcasts

Break to Meditate

Returned on March 20th from serving on a 3 day old-student Vipassana meditation course at Dhamma Āloka - a Vipassana meditation center just outside Melbourne. Serving was a frugal way for me to have a break from the daily grind of playing poker and to refresh and refocus my meditation practice.

Serving on a Vipassana meditation course is a voluntary activity undertaken by old students as a way of donating to others. This stint involved working in the kitchen, interspersed with the compulsory meditation sittings that the servers are required to attend. So, while the meditation center provides a roof over my head, a bed to sleep in, food, and the opportunity to meditate regularly each day, I provide some of the labour that enables the course to be provided frugally.

The routine was bracing for this guy in his mid-fifties who hasn't worked in paid employment for several years. Up each morning at 05:10 for a quick shower before helping prepare breakfast for around 40 students/servers with a serving time of 06:30. Followed by breakfast cleanup and attending a one hour group sitting at 08:00. from 09:00 - 11:00 is spent working towards serving lunch at 11:00 followed by cleanup through to 13:00 where the servers take a break until the 14:30 - 15:30 group sitting. 15:30 through to 17:00 is spent preparing for tomorrow's main meal and preparing lemon & ginger water for the old students to take at 17:00. Work through to just before 18:00 when another group sit happens through to 19:00. 19:00 through to 21:00 depends on where we are with respect to preparing food for the next day, and if all prepared then the kitchen servers can sit in the hall and either listen to the discourse from 19:00 and/or the final meditation which commences after a short break following the discourse.

Three days break from poker was a good move. My last two sessions prior to serving on the course were not good. In particular the final session was a session I should have quit on very early in the session. Mentally I was not there and was not following the action at the table.  While I have yet to have a session where I have been mentally tuned in and focussed for the entire session, I am improving in my ability to catch myself and bring my attention back to the table to refocus my attention on the action. But in my last session I was finding it very difficult to stay focused for even one hand at a time

Negative EV Live Read "Are you a cop?"...

A couple of Saturdays ago I sat down at a 1/3 table where a guy, in his late 20's,  from the Northern Hemisphere, was providing most of the chatter at the table. After a while a pattern emerged with his commentary. It appears that this fellow had gone to University and completed a degree that had very little to do with the work he was now undertaking. That is, working in the finance industry. And one of his big life regrets, at the age of 28 or so, was that he had, from his point of view, failed to realize when he was leaving school that a better option would have been to pursue an apprenticeship and become a carpenter, electrician, plumber or some other tradie type occupation. I have some sympathy for the view that many young people would be far better off pursuing a trade rather than taking on debt via the tertiary education system.  Charles Hugh Smith has blogged on the issue of student loans being a rort. And as I have an eighteen year old son and a twenty year old son, I have been concerned at the risks of my sons taking on large amounts of student debt with the possibility of a poor chance of being able to pay the loans back should their choices be poor.

So, at first, I was nodding my head and feeling some sympathy for this fellow. However, with the passage of time it became apparent that this fellow had this regret of his stuck on a repeat loop. And after he had started in again, on what was starting to sound very much like a deeply entrenched whinge, I chose to start asking him some open-ended questions in the hope of nudging the conversation away from his life regrets towards another area that might be less depressing/boring. Eventually we started to converse about what was the nature of his work in Melbourne. And it came out that he worked in the financial industry with an interest in trading the financial markets. Several other relevant pieces of information that surfaced were that:

• he, and others in the firm he worked for, worked many hours per week
• quite often he would sleep in the office
• and it would appear, that stimulatory drugs were used at times to help get through the work or stay awake at vital times

As the conversation went on  my open-ended questions eventually moved towards more closed questions. And as I took this path with the questions related to drug use, this fellow became quite concerned and became concerned that I might be a cop.  Several times, as he talked about his work/drug use he looked at me sideways and asked me "Are you a cop?".  About ten or fifteen minutes after he first asked me whether I was a cop he lifted his stack and left the poker room....  His read of me as being a cop was wrong. And perhaps he is taking the wrong selection of drugs as his level of paranoia seems to be a little on the high side and prevented him from  enjoying his recreational game of poker.

A couple of days ago I was reminded of this short episode in my life by another player from that table who ended up on the same table as me. He recognized me from that interaction and brought up the paranoid exit from the game by the player who thought I was a cop.... 

The Caulfield rut

Landed ok. That hint of religious fervor hinted at in a pre-arrival text has failed to rise up and display itself in any meaningful way.

I've met the female half of the hosting couple and she  is nice. Responsive and keen on feedback to make the place a better AirBnB experience. There is a mother/daughter couple from China staying in another room in the house so this is my first shared AirBnB experience. We have limited common language competence so we will be fellow travellers who are unable to share our common experiences. The front half of the house is for the AirBnB folk.With a bedroom off each side of the entrance hallway. The hallway leads through, and opens out  to, a kitchen / living area / bathroom. With the hallway then continuing through to a private living area for the hosts.

When chatting with the lady host I mentioned having a 4 deck power board in the bedroom would be a nice addition. As, for many guests, having 3 (or even more) electronic devices may not be that unusual. An hour or so later I came out of my room and saw a new 4 deck power board sitting on the kitchen table. My gut feeling was that the power deck was intended for my room but left it as didn't want to offend in case it wasn't, and if it was, I could wait. In the morning the deck was gone.  The lady host saw me a bit later and asked if I had taken it (and yes, it was intended for me). It seems the Chinese pair had seen the deck on the table, had assumed that it was meant for them, so had taken it.... Which gave both the host and I a bit of a chuckle as it confirmed that providing a 4 deck power board for AirBnB travellers was probably a good thing. Especially if there was a possibility of a mother/daughter combination competing for the use of power outlets for their respective devices.

This residence is about 1km from the train station which is around my optimal distance for enforced daily exercise. I'll be walking a minimum of 4.5km each day I travel into the Casino from this residence. And, while having no bathroom scales available to check whether my weight loss is real, has the most wasteful shower head I have ever showered under. It is like showering under an intense waterfall. Melbourne, like many Australian towns or cities, treats water like the precious resource it is in a dry continent. I am *very* surprised to be able to shower in such a wasteful way. And I will be trying to keep my showers short and sweet.

Monday today. I'm sure I should have reviewed my week and set my goals for the coming week yesterday or today. But I'm feeling lazy so will aim to do it tonight or tomorrow.

Getting ready for the next mini rut-jump

My time in residence at a sunny little room in Northcote helping a  middle-aged solo mother pay the rent, courtesy of AirBnB, is almost at an end. She, along with her near 16 year old son, have been in this rental property for the last 16 years or so. With the ending of her partnership with her son's father sometime in the past year I'm guessing life is a little tougher than it was. We didn't really get into the details of that scenario too much, and I'm just guessing, but I'm pretty sure that AirBnB is helping her out in a fairly significant way.

Anyhoo, I've managed to book my next place. Somewhere near Caulfield race course.  Set up the arrival details for tomorrow's arrival via messaging on AirBnB. With the last 3 words of the final text from my new host being "Many joyous blessings".  When making initial contact for a booking AirBnB suggests telling the prospective host something about you. In general I tell them that I'm a bloke in my mid-fifties who is a non-drinker and who spends the first 45 minutes of each day meditating. All true. But I generally leave out the little detail that I spend a chunk of each day at the Casino playing poker, and a fair chunk of each day playing online.... There is a chance this next mini-rut has some religious wall paper of some description. Mentally I need to be prepared to jump ruts a little quicker than first planned.

I need to plan my next jump a little better. I left the booking for this one to pretty late in the day. While the stress levels did start to rise when I had failed to make a booking two days out from my departure from this residence, the rise in stress levels was less than I had expected. Maybe all that meditation is having an effect on my ability to handle stress.