A brief jump to Sydney

Exited the Brunswick AirBnB and jumped up to Sydney to house-sit for a bit over a week while G & J and their kiddies have a vacation in Fiji to celebrate J's 50th. Their lovely labradoodle Fernie is going to be getting me out of the house each morning for a wander around the local park.

My intent over this next week or so is to put in as much study time as possible. Having a place to myself for a week is a luxury I want to take advantage of.  The ideal outcome would be to work my way through Alexander Fitzgerald's new book "The Myth of Poker Talent". With some AirBnB's I tend to want to spend time outside the AirBnB accommodation. For example, with the latest AirBnB, the Hostess worked from home as a Freelance copy writer. My feeling was that I didn't want to intrude on her work space so took off each day and would head into a public library should I wish to perform any poker study that day.  Having an empty house to myself is a luxury that will be truly enjoyed.

Planning to Quit and sticking to it.

About a week ago I donked off a buy-in through staying too long, playing while tired, and not having a plan to quit. A pattern of behaviour that has cost me money in the past. And a pattern that I've written about previously with the intent of making myself plan my sessions and quit when I intend to.

Since that session last week I've been diligent with putting alarms into my phone to give myself a cue to either have a break or to leave the Casino. And I'm pleased to report that I've stuck with that pattern of behaviour for the past week. And I'm more conscious of monitoring my inner feeling of alertness / tiredness and have been able to up and quit when I realize I'm no longer able to properly monitor the action that is happening at my table. 

My daily meditation practice is going well. I've now established a habit pattern of meditating for one hour each morning. This new level of meditation has been in place for a bit over two months now and I'm sure it is giving me the ability to focus and concentrate for longer on the action and betting patterns taking place at the tables. I can recall the early days of my meditation practice when I would struggle to sit for 15 minutes. And now I'm sitting for 60 minutes with what feels like much less effort, frustration and bodily discomfort.  At the start of 2016 my daily practice was 30 minutes per day, and to now hit 60 minutes per day is a new habit that I am well pleased to have established.

I've acquired Alexander Fitzgerald's "The Myth of Poker Talent" and have started working my way through that book. Alex's weekly podcast at oneouter.com is a great motivational tool for me. I'm a little bemused that my major poker mentor is a 27 year old hyper active American. But he is such an advocate of improvement through hard work, discipline and thoughtful effort that, while I don' quite get through as much study each week as Alex advocates, I certainly do far more study than if I didn't listen to him. By the end of 2016 I would like to have better work habits established. I'm conscious of the tedx talk on Tiny Habits and will be looking to build in cues to my day to give myself a better chance of getting in between one and two hours study per day.

Everyone loves a chopped pot.....Not!!!

On Saturday I sat at a table where I happened to observe a Heads Up hand between two female poker players. Given that the vast majority of players are males and it is pretty rare to have have two or more female players at the same table, watching a Heads Up hand between two female players is rare enough. The Out Of Position (OOP) in this hand was a tight aggressive player.

The In Position (IP) player had been considerably looser. And was showing signs of tilt. Possibly entitlement tilt.  She had been folding a lot of hands on the flop or turn, often exasperatedly showing the player to her left the hand that she was ditching.  The body language and language she was using gave me the feeling that she was feeling frustrated.

For the hand in question, on the turn, the OOP player check-raised on a board 6c7s8d10h.  The IP player then shoved all-in. At which point the OOP player snap-called. The river was a blank. The IP player tabled a pair of 9s.   The OOP player then smiled and laughingly tabled a pair of 9s for a chopped pot.   The OOP then made a remark in a playful, friendly manner and leaned over the table to offer her opponent a high five.  The IP player had face palmed while sighing loudly, and when aware of the offered high five, flipped her middle finger towards the OOP player....

I felt sad for the IP player who was having a great deal of trouble handling her tilt.....

Jumping to Brunswick

The Newport rut was a short, but enjoyable rut. Very good host. And one of the best places I've stayed at for the money paid. My daily meditations were very easy to do. In part due to the environment - the bedroom I was staying in was a very pleasant place to stay in, and in part to the atmosphere. Myra, the Scottish, 50+ish hostess, is a practicing Tibetan Bhuddist and there were many examples of Bhuddist symbology around the house.

After five days in Newport it was off to Brunswick, where I'll be staying until Tuesday Sep 27th. The night before I moved to Brunswick I received a text from one of my previous AirBnB hosts alerting me to a function happening in Hope Street, Brunswick. This just happened to be about 150m from my new AirBnB so was an easy event to agree to go along to. The event was put on as a fund raiser for Entheogenesis Australis's 2017 outdoor event scheduled for December 2017. Some interesting speakers. With one speaker from a group he claimed to be psychonauts nonymous tweaking my interest in his group. Sadly I didn't get any details and my google searches today have failed to unearth any contact details.  Oh well.  Maybe another time.

Tonight I intend to play in a tournament at Crown. But before I do I need to do at least two hours study. So here I am in the State Library typing up a blog post, aka procrasti-tasking, and sort of avoiding doing my required poker study.

The information that nudged me to try Spotify

I have been aware of Spotify for quite a while. But just couldn't be bothered for some reason.

Well I found a reason.

My bucket list is quite short. One of the items on the list is to have a psychedelic experience with either LSD or Psilocybin. After reading about the research undertaken by Roland Griffiths and others into Psilocybin my preference is to take a series of Psilocybin experiences.

My interest in taking Psilocybin has been building this year, especially after reading research papers from pubmed and an article from the New Yorker, so every so often I mooch around the internet looking for more information about Psilocybin. And last night I was reading an article which discussed some information from Bill Richards book "Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences".    Specifically the post was dealing with the topic of how important the right music playlist could be in enhancing the psychedelic experience:

Psychedelics and music have long been linked, but at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where William A. Richards conducts research, music plays an important part in ensuring the stability off entheogen study participants. In this excerpt from Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences, Richards explains the role of music in his work. The excerpt is followed by the playlist Richards compiled.

 And towards the bottom of the blog post, after the playlist, some kind person has provided a link to a spotify playlist that mirrors the playlist Richards compiled.

This post has been put together while listening to the Spotify playlist noted in the blog post above.

Time for a day off from poker

With unlimited internet data downloads on offer I've decided to go on a Tim Ferriss podcast binge. And have re-downloaded a bunch of his interviews to re-listen to.

Time for a day of no poker and some walking with the sound of Tim Ferriss and his guests filling my new Bose noise-cancelling headphones.  It seems I'm one step behind Apple. Bought the headphones in August. And in September Apple announce their new iPhone doesn't have a wireless jack input anymore. Well, lucky for me I'm using it on an Ipad and am *very* happy with the results.  My apple earbuds stopped working optimally and it was a choice of new earbuds or upgrade. I chose the upgrade. And while the head phones are way more expensive than earbuds the amount of utility I have received since the purchase makes them one of my better buys this decade. Very happy with the purchase.

Time to explore Newport and Williamstown a little

Friday at the Casino. My fish tendencies return

Had a day at the Casino. Mainly with the intent of playing in a couple of Aussie Millions feeder satellites. Played ok in the satellites without luck in the flips. Shallow structure meant that flips were required reasonably early and unfortunately AQo did not serve me well against JJ.

Then I played a cash session where I played like a bit of a fish again. There were several hands where I was beaten on the river, one hand where I was bluffed of a set with four cards to a straight on the table and every time I raised with AK I had four callers and whiffed the flop out of position...

Hand of interest:
I'm on the button with As10s. Guy in his late 20's / early 30's who looks semi-competent opens for 15 from early position (this is a 1/3 table). Loose guy to my left calls. I call.

Flop comes 10c8c6s.

Early position leads out for 30 into pot of 49.

Loose guy calls. I call

Turn is 6h

Early Position guy leads again for 60.
Loose guy tanks.
 Eventually calls
I ponder and decide that likely one of these guys has me beaten. Either early position guy with an overpair. Or loose guy has a 6 for trips. Or he is on a flush draw or has a ten or perhaps a flush draw and a straigth draw.

I fold

River is 2c. Flush draw has now come in.  Early position guy checks
Loose guy ponders and, with a look of mild concern pushes the rest of his chips in
Early position guy calls.
Loose guy shows Jc6c for trips on turn and flush on river
Early position guy says that he had a 6 with a better kicker so my best guess is A6 suited.

Looking back at the hand, while I'm not absolutely sure,  I'm pretty sure that loose guy would likely have called a shove on the flop. And early position guy's range had too many overpairs on the the flop for me to feel great about shoving the flop.

Out of Port Melbourne into Newport

My two week visit to Port Melbourne ended today, which meant my luggage was re-acquainted with the Southern Cross Railway Station luggage lockers during that period of time between checking out of the Port Melbourne residence and being able to check into the Newport residence.. It seems that my suitcase is just a little too fat to get into the chosen locker so had to empty it a little to squeeze it in. Then off to the Casino to see if I could satellite into an Aussie Millions mega satellite. No luck but only $40 invested in that venture so no major concern. The cash tables were a little more kind to me and I had a small profit for the day.

Toodled off to Newport to my new AirBnB, arriving around 06:30pm to one of the nicer AirBnBs I've been in. With a shy 9 year old cat called Pogo. And a very gregarious small dog called Yoshi. The hostess for this place is a lady who appears to be in her fifties and retains a broad Scottish accent despite having left Scotland when she was 13.

Now settled comfortably onto a couch in my new room. Quiet location. Five days in this place as that is the maximum time that can be booked for this place. First time I've come across that particular restriction but no matter as the location is convenient for my van buying project.  Though I may well end up buying online. Both of the major car auction places I've been to allow online bidders. And there  are auctions being held all over Australia. I'm not going to be too concerned at having to travel somewhere to pick up a van that seems to be a good buy. Hmmm.  Sounds like a gamble buying online and not seeing the van in person... But it may be a risk worth taking. And if it doesn't work out does it really matter? Seeing that no-one reads this blog I'm allowed to pose questions to myself and answer them..

Binging on financial newsletters

I have a subscription to Intelligent investor, and, for the past 3 months, have been neglecting to read the weekly articles.  Not reading the articles for three months is a lengthy period to take my eye off that ball. So it is time to dig in and have a binge on those newsletters. I'll try to get through the three months worth of news letters over the next day or so.... It would be a waste to have subscribed and then not read any of the articles.

Getting back into the grind

Since returning from Vipassana land most of my poker has been online tournaments on pokerstars. With only two visits to Crown. Last night for a couple of hours which showed a $15 loss, and cash session on Friday for a small win and then a loss in the Friday night $175 freezeout  tournament.  I felt good in the tournament but was pretty card dead for much of my time. Seemed to be able to be present in the moment for large chunks of time and to be able to replay the action from most hands in my head. If I continue to be able to do that in live tournaments that will represent a major step forward for my mental game. There has been too much information available that I have failed to pick up on. I bailed from last nights cash session due to tiredness.  When I realized I'd gone for an orbit without taking note of the action I cashed out immediately. Too many losing sessions when tired so I'm glad I managed to avoid staying too long last night.

That was then followed by an all  night session playing poker through to around 8:00 am this morning. During that time I had a Netflix binge on Narcos. Watching all of season 1.  This AirBnB has allowed me to watch the last two seasons of House of Cards, the new series "Stranger Things", and now the first season of Narcos. After a month of zero TV in Vipassana land, having a binge feels good.  Although I'm still trying to put in at least one hour of poker study per day.  Listening to poker podcasts fills some of that time. I've given myself a gift of some noise cancelling headphones. And, after having had to deal with Apple ear buds for the past 6 months, having these headphones on is so much more pleasurable.

Body clock wise it seems I have  turned into a night owl. Which is not what I want to have happen. There is a fall out when I wish to be somewhere in the morning or midday time frame. Feel far too woolly headed and tired at those times. And as buying a van at auction is an activity I've been spending some time on over the past week or so, having to be up and away early is going to be something I have to do at least a few more times.

Since returning from Vipassana land I've managed to meditate for at least 1 session of at least 1 hour on a daily basis. Which I'm finding is a good thing.

Weight wise, I weighed myself a couple of days ago and found myself to be right on 85Kg. Given that when I arrived in Melbourne on Jan 23 this year I was 95Kg, that is another good thing.

And I've decided to set myself a new goal. To increase my flexibility by regularly stretching my hamstrings and by doing some shoulder stretches. After listening to Tim Ferriss's podcast interview regarding the secrets of gymnastic strength training, I've taken a kernel of information from that podcast regarding how long it takes to stretch out connective tissue and decided to marry it with some information from the tiny habits ted talk. My intention is to spend some time stretching at the completion of my morning meditation session. Say around 5 minutes or so. And to throw in some stretches during the day when I've worked out a cue that works for me.  It seems that, according to the gymnastics coach Tim Ferriss interviewed,  around 220 days or so of effort is required to make the progress I desire. So I'll be interested to see whether I'm able to introduce the habit and keep it going.

Ten years of Vipassana

In November 2006 I sat my first Vipassana course. And here I am almost ten years later still involved in Vipassana.

In November 2006 I was 47 years old, had been working in an office job at a desk for most of my adult life, and had spent very little time in a cross-legged sitting position since primary school. At that time the folks running Vipassana were likely a little more hard-line than they are now in trying to get people to sit cross-legged. I suffered a lot of pain during that course. And, in many respects, was the hardest ten days of my life.

Probably would not have returned except for the feedback from my ex that there seemed to be an impact that lasted around three months. And that was despite my doing pretty much zero meditation in the months after my first course. It seems her perception was that I was much stiller when asleep. To the point that every so often she would prod me to see if I was still alive / breathing. From a distance of ten years later I attribute my lack of meditation after that first course being due to the message given in one of the later discourses in the ten day course. That is,  that we should commit to two 1 hour meditation sessions per day. And given that I could not easily sit cross legged that was a sure recipe for failure with respect to being able to sit for two 1 hour sessions per day.  These days I would advocate that any time spent is better than no time spent. And if I had started off at an achievable level I may well be more advanced in my practice than I currently find myself. Even ten minutes once a day would have been a good place to start. The Ted talk on Tiny Habits advocates starting small and banking achievable wins when starting out on the path of trying to imbed a new habit into life. I would also point out that the Vipassana desire to get its students sitting cross legged is based off some words attributed to Bhudda with respect to how one should sit when meditating. Personally I believe sitting in a chair is fine. And that cross legged sitting can be optional. But that sitting without back support is a good goal to work towards as it allows you to stay more awake.

Fast forward through my next two courses - November 2007 and Feb 2009 and there was still much pain associated with sitting. A few days into my third course I was starting to wonder where the subtle vibrations were that were mentioned so frequently during the course. So I asked the teacher. Who sort of looked at me a little sadly and advised me to keep working.  It wasn't until sometime on day 9 of my third course that I started to experience the subtle vibrations on a 2 to 3 cm wide area on my face....  And on each course since then the areas I experience subtle "vibrations" has expanded to cover most areas of my body.

The dogma put forward is that the subtle "vibrations" is the mind's perception of the dissolution of the body and that the mind is perceiving the vibrations of  kalapas. I reject that part of the theory as it just doesn't seem credible to me. I can see where Goenka may have developed his belief that the perception of subtle vibrations is the minds perception of kalapas. However, my view is that the brain is being rewired to be more sensitive to the background noise of the sensory neurons.

Each sensory neuron automatically fires after a set amount of time. Say every 70 milli-seconds. Sort of like an "I'm alive" signal being sent to the sensory cortex. And when the rate changes - say to a less frequent rate or a higher rate, these changes in firing frequency can mean something to the sensory cortex. My own belief is that the "subtle vibrations" that Goenka talks about are, in fact, the background "I'm Alive" signals that are being sent in by millions of sensory cortex neurons.

Thus, for me, when I perceive subtle vibrations on a new part of my body where I have never detected subtle vibrations previously, the conclusion I reach is that I have rewired yet another part of my sensory cortex.

Each time I sit a ten day course I essentially commit to listening to the same set of discourses again. The ten day discourses were taped many years ago and are replayed at each ten day course at every Vipassana center around the world. Each time I seem to find a new part of the discourse I disagree with. Having said that, there are some useful parts for new meditators who may be struggling with practical issues related to their meditation. Goenka discusses problems with meditation that may arise and the mind set you can use to get around those problems. But all the talk of Bhudda,  past lives and kalapas is pretty much ignored by me these days as being faith based dogma with no evidence to support the dogma. Thus the price of admission, listening to the discourses, is something I have to deal with during each course.  Essentially I believe that a ten day retreat to meditate is good for me. And that I will put up with the discourse as a rather small price to pay for attending an affordable meditation retreat. Goenka states in one discourse that it is not important to believe the information in the discourse. And when the time is ripe you will start believing the discourse. Well, not in this life time. And as I believe that one life time is all you get I'm a thinking that I'll never be believing his discourses.

After sitting six ten day courses I started serving. And I've found that I enjoy serving a course more than sitting. When serving you have to sit three 1 hour meditation sessions per day. I find that, when serving, as the time available for meditation is concentrated into those 1 hour sessions I focus more in the sessions and take the sessions seriously. When I'm sitting a course with up to 10 or 12 hours of meditation looming in front of me for the day I seem to spend more time being unfocused and re-living moments from the past. And that is not an activity that I particularly enjoy. Especially following my break-up with my ex as that could lead me towards regretful thoughts and some pretty dark places.  Therefore I'm serving more than sitting these past few years and enjoying the experience.

One of the benefits of serving up until this 30 day course is that the discourses have been optional on the ten day courses. And I was expecting that to be the case on the 30 day course I served this last August. Alas, this was not to be the case. There was a mandatory evening discourse scheduled every night for the servers. We could not listen to the discourse that the 30 day students were getting as you had to have sat the 30 day course before getting that set of discourses.  But if the discourses were anything like the ten day discourses, or the discourses from the 8 day Satipatthna Sutta, then no great loss. Probably more exhortation of how great the Bhudda's words were. What a great scientist he was etc. And very little new in terms of meditation technique.  Unfortunately the discourse is scheduled for late in the day, in this 30 day course, just before evening metta. So I was pretty tired going into most of the discourses and slipped off to sleep several times.  When I was more awake I tried to ignore the discourse and meditate. Sometimes successfully.

I keep my views on the discourses pretty close to my chest when serving as many servers seem to have bought into the explanation by Goenka for why the technique works, and I see no point in trying to convince them otherwise. It isn't too hard to find some critical posts on the internet regarding the Goenka courses. For example, at one website there is a long thread discussing whether the people who drink the kool-aid, (as in believe the discourses), have been caught in a cult. It seems that to become a teacher at a Goenka center that you have to have bought into the dogma. And, as the organisation promotes unquestioning obedience to authority, it is unlikely, in my view, that there will be any change to the discourses in the near to medium future. However, it is my believe that, at some point, the evidence from research into how meditation works will end up discrediting large chunks of Goenka's discourses. Belief in past lives is a belief I put into the same bucket as belief in Santa being real of the Easter Bunny being real.  A faith based belief.

These days I can sit in, what is, in yoga terms, easy cross legs, for an hour at a time with little discomfort. And that is a nice place to be when meditating. The people that have bought into the Goenka discourses would attribute the pain when sitting during my early courses down to my having Sankaras being present and I needed to work my way through my load of Sankaras. Which I think is a load of bollocks. The pain was due to me stretching connective tissue. And the connective tissue was complaining at being made to stretch for the first time in about 40 years. Subsequently, now that I've sat for long enough, the tissue has been stretched and is much better at coping with lengthy periods of sitting in a cross-legged posture.

Another trick I've found useful is to acquire a meditation stool and alternate between sitting cross-legged and kneeling on the meditation stool. Alternating sitting positions seems to allow me to better cope with prolonged sitting.

So I keep returning to Vipassana centers to sit or serve in the knowledge that to get the benefits of being supported through a ten day meditation course at a cost I can afford, I have to sit and listen each day to a discourse that, with each passing year, shows more and more signs of being sadly out of date.

An update from #1 son

Just received  an email from #1 son wishing me Happy Father's day. That was nice. What was nicer was that he put some effort into the email and made it a bit of a catch up email.

He is approaching his 21st birthday in November so there were some thoughts on what he will do at the time. Unfortunately that time coincides with end of University year exams and people leaving Auckland for their summer vacation experiences.  No doubt he will work something out.

Plus he is pondering moving out into a flatting situation. Whatever he chooses to do I wish him well. With my move to Australia there has been precious little communication between myself and my sons. They are both independent and, as males sometimes tend to do, communicate in a sparse fashion with their father.

Serving at Blackheath Vipassana Meditation center for a 30 day course

Many similarities to serving on a 10 day course. And some differences.

Similarities:

• Worked in the kitchen - which is where I have performed most of my previous service
• Similar schedule - with minor differences.
• Metta at the end of each day

 Differences:

• Kitchen servers not allowed in the dining areas at all while the students are there.  On a 10 day course the kitchen servers can take there meals from the food in the dining room 15 minutes after the students start taking their meals.  The male / female managers are  allowed to be in the dining rooms so as to monitor the food situation. And can take more food in or, if one side has run out, negotiate behind the scenes to move food from one side to another. So, where as on a 10 day course all the food may have been moved into the dining room area, we ended up keeping a reserve back. If, after 15 minutes, the students had taken their meals and there was still plenty of food in the dining are, the kitchen servers could feed themselves from the reserve. Otherwise the reserve goes out to the dining area via the male/female managers and the kitchen servers have to fend for themselves with whatever is available in the kitchen (leftovers, make a sandwich etc)
• Group sits are separate to the students. Most of us sat in the language lab.  The female manager had sat a 30 day course so she could sit with the students. The male manager hadn't, so he sat with the rest of us.
• The metta at the end of the day follows a different routine. We entered the hall via the students entrance rather than the servers entrance. And while the metta recording was played, sat at the back of the hall, rather than where the servers would sit in a 10 day course. Then we would move forward to sit in a semi-circle at the feet of the teachers.
• No new students. So evening prep and cleanup was easier

My, still rather limited, experience with serving leads me to believe that the dynamic in each group is different due to the different personality mix.

We ended up having three kitchen managers over the course.

• First manager handed over the reins after 8 days. She was a nice lady. Unfortunately I butted heads with her a couple of times over issues which I shall describe below. And, while I hope that was not the reason she gave the position up, probably had an influence
• The second manager had, over the course of the first 8 days, shown that she was an extremely hard worker, very competent cook and seemed to be well organized. Unfortunately she worked herself too hard and on day 18 had burnt herself out.  She then went out to do gardening duty for several days, then slowly started doing a mix of kitchen serving and garden duties before returning for the last several days of the 30 day course.  However, there was a 45 day course running concurrently and she was signed up to serve through for another 45 days. And my impression was that she would put herself at risk of burning out again.  So I put my 2 cents in and mentioned at metta that I was concerned at her working too hard again. And that the team should help her with managing her energy.  In addition I pointed her to two books that helped me with understanding the importance of managing your energy as a way of increasing your resilience and making it more likely you could avoid burnout. 
• The third manager was recommended to the teachers to become the kitchen manager by the second manager. In the first few days of the course I told this guy to his face that I thought he was a "loveable slackarse". His response at the time was that he had been called a lot worse and laughed it off. He was very good at talking. Not so good at having a radar that would tell him that he should maybe be doing a bit of work while he talked.  And it was a big surprise to him when he was asked to be kitchen manager. He confided to me that this was a new experience for him to be promoted. As, at his last place of work, it was the good workers who got promoted.  However, while there was still variability in his output, he did put in a lot more effort. Having the prime responsibility for ensuring the team got the meals out on time and that they tasted great gave him more focus and, while there were a few glitches over the remaining days he was in charge, overall the team liked the environment he provided, the meals went out on time, and the meals tasted great. A couple of times there wasn't enough food for the servers. And one time maybe not enough for the students which caused high tension between him and the male/female managers, but overall he did a great job.

The team was:

• Jackie - an Aussie lady in her 50's who signed up to be there for the full 45 days
• Hoi Chin - a Malaysian Chinese lady, in her 20's, who was there for the full 45 days and who had her mother sitting the 45 day course. Great Cook. Hard Worker.
• Monique - an Aussie lady probably late 20's early 30's, from Tasmania, who was serving with her partner Julian. Both Monique and Julian left in the afternoon of day 24 as they had a prior family commitment
• Paulina - a Swedish lady of Polish parents in her early 30's who served the initial 30 days and stayed on for a few days with a plan to head off to Pomona in Queensland to serve and sit at the Pomona center.  Her personality, at times, reminded me of my ex at her best. At times mischievous and cheeky, smiled a lot, and could talk to anyone in the team. Many times she lifted the spirits of the team.
• Julian - 35 year old German who was Monique's partner
• Mark - early 40's Aussie guy from somewhere south of Sydney. Living on the coast. 
• Myself - greybearded guy, who may just still squeek into the mid-50's definition age wise
• Victor - male manager for the 45 day course in his early 60's. Of European descent, born and raised in India until age 14, then, after migrating to Australia at the age of 14, has spent most of the rest of his life in Australia. He has a story to tell and, while initially comes across as a bit gruff and grumpy, turns out to have an interesting life story and I have a lot of respect for the work he put in to get to where he is now.
• David - Aussie male manager for the 30 day course. In his early 40's. Lovely guy who would leak a bit of information about himself every now and again. By the time he had to leave on day 27 I *really* liked the guy. And also was left wondering how he had managed to stay alive and why he was so happy. He was a great guy to have around as his happiness was infectious
• Lin - female manager for 30 day course. Chinese with limited English. The one person who I did not have any conversations with
• Lois - female manager for 45 day course. Based in Sydney of Chinese extraction. Didn't have much interaction with Lois in the first 15 days. But by the end of the course, after Monique and Julian had left, she had stepped into the kitchen to help out whenever there was a crunch time and helped out with whatever needed to be done. During those later days managed to have a couple of minor interactions with her and she was great

Notes:  Energy management books are "The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal" by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwatz and "The Way we're Working Isn't Working : The Four Forgotten Needs that Energize Great Performance" by Tony Schwatz, Jean Gomes and Catherine McCarthy 

A Month in a different rut.

Yesterday I exited  Blackheath Vipassana meditation center after spending a bit over a month serving in the kitchen. The center kicked off two long courses concurrently at the start of August. A 30 day course that finished up on August 31st. And a 45 day course that finishes up on September 15th.

A different experience to serving on a 10 day course. With the center being locked down. The gate from the road was shut and deliveries to the kitchen were offloaded into a van parked just outside the gate and we had to trundle up with a wheelbarrow to retrieve the deliveries.  On a 10 day course the servers join the students in the hall for group sits. Not so on a 30 / 45 day course. With servers doing their best to hide from the students at all times.

So:

• pretty much no poker education or poker playing for August this year
• very limited digital diet.  Which I set about correcting yesterday while travelling from NSW to Melbourne. I inhaled several podcasts from Tim Ferriss. In particular I enjoyed the latest chat Tim had with Tony Robbins.
• three hours of meditation each day for 30+ days. Felt great traveling and observing the outside world for the first time in a month. 

On the flight down to Melbourne I sat next to a General Manager for a firm that sounded like it might be a good fit for work experience for #1 son who is in his 3rd year of his engineering degree and needs some work experience at the end of this year.  Managed to get email contact details and have sent them to #1 son so that he can send his resume through. As the firm has facilities in Auckland (where #1 son is studying) and Thailand, if #1 son gets a gig in Thailand I'll look at paying his air fare to Thailand as a 21st birthday present.

Have returned to an airBnB in Port Melbourne that I stayed at in April/May this year where I find they have a new flatmate who has a Netflix account... And I'm allowed to binge watch during the day. Just what a digitally deprived digital media addict needs upon return to civilization.

A little tired today after staying up to 3:00 am playing internet poker.... Back to the life of a homeless poker player. My major goal for September is to acquire what all wealthy homeless poker players have: A van.  Time to start visiting car auction sites....