Spy vs Spy... plus some poker

The secrecy and subversive nature of this week, has been a troubling return to work following my vacation. Hey, it's not been Jason Bourne kinda stuff exactly but I'm quickly honing my skills to the point that a rolled up magazine will serve equally well as a weapon in any knife fight that I might per chance encounter. Secret squirrel, covert ops, spook shit, whatever it is... I've played a role. I would say TGIF... but some of the wildest announcements and proclaimations were today, some which no one saw coming. Following a late night, last night with very little sleep the events of the day have certainly kept me more alert than I have a right to be. BUT, lest I should incite the wrath of my handlers... that's all I'm going to say. Know that a number of things have however weighed heavily upon my mind.

In other news... tonight July 24th, 7:00pm at the local Eagles Aerie 2407... we're having another of our famed No Limit Hold'em Tournaments. This is open to the public, capped at 50 players (for now.) $25 gets you in the game. Registration begins at 6:00pm. Hope to see you all there.

Beyond that, tomorrow night is poker tournament night at the Yanok's house. It's gonna be a great "lost poker weekend!" And trust me I'm gonna need it.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Ooops my geek is showing!

Yeah, go figure I take a quiz... it likens me to a little green guy, although I'm not feeling all that Yoda-like this morning. Never saw him get all bent outa shape about anything. I did just this morning over a friggin' email. But I did say my peace... punctuated it with a few expletives.

But now I'm meditating quietly in my little corner finding bliss in the fact that I leave for Vegas in 5 Days, 5 Hours, 33 Minutes! The non-technical management overlords can get bent!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Oh yeah... it's a lot like that.

Here I am, fresh back from vacation, once again working for "the man." I've been quickly refitted with the requisite chains and bindings. I can already feel my jaw slacking, and my back beginning to hunch over from the labor of it all. And for Pete's sake, I have a damned office job. How can so much shit get piled back on in a single morning. Not to mention I'm still trying to catch up on the emails from while I was away that were upwards of 400 total. Admittedly, that's low compared to what normally greets me on a return.

I've already heard Laura comment that she's ready to go back to Myrtle Beach and grab a bottle of Jack Daniels for the trip to drown the sorrows. In the picture above, I think she's one of the shadowy figures in the back. I feel like the 3rd in line. The guy in the front bears a striking resemblance to online moniker "Short Stacked Shamus." Hmmmm, go figure. Thankfully Shamus is generally a little more upbeat.

Anyway, work is here and about what I expected. I'm hoping to catch up with JR and Frank today to see how their trips to Tri-State Racetrack and Casino turned out. I'm hoping if nothing else that I can get in a couple of SNG's at some point in the next coupla days to quench the poker thirst.

Over vacation I read quite a bit. I want to recommend the author Christopher Moore to each of you. I devoured two of his books You Suck: A Love Story and Practical Demonkeeping over vacation. I even dropped him an email as appreciation and admiration of his writing, to which I got a response. How cool was that! Anyway, if you haven't done so before, check him out. His twisted wit and story telling were just right up my alley, hope you find him that way too. Right now, I'm indulging in a Jimmy Buffett novel trying to get my "island chill" on with A Salty Piece of Land trying to combat the drudgery of the workweek.

OHHH, and as a side note. I want to thank the nameless faceless person who found my wallet last night outside the restaurant and took it to the manager. Yup, I lost my wallet and didn't even know it, when I get a call from the Eagles Lodge of all things. Turns out the manager found my Eagles membership card and called them to have them get in touch with me to inform me that they had my wallet!?! Whatever, I was glad of it. To top it off, all the cash, id's, credit cards, and dust bunnies were all still present and accounted for. So whoever you were, thanks a lot pal! There are still a few good people out there in the world. My faith in humanity is renewed again.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Screamin' Eagle

Nothing but a 5 hour work day to contend with tomorrow, and I use the word "work" lightly. The week has been an absolute grind, and I don't mean in a good way, like on the felt. But working for my Uncle Sam. It's like this "Unc" you've had more than your fair share of me this week. I'm heading out for some R 'n R tonight. You think it'd be a bad thing if I planned ahead for a DD to get me to work in the morning? One plus side to it, you don't have a hangover... of course on the downside, you can't walk a straight line. Then again, how often does that friggin' task come up in the workplace. Okay, okay, I'm only kidding. I'm going to down a few tonight, but I'm not planning on it getting out of hand. To those of you who will be there tonight at the Eagles, you can however expect to see one of those minor skirmishes with the accursed Jack Daniels. Incidentally, I thought the "screamin' eagle" above was apropos! Cut me some slack here people, I've been writing myself silly at work about things I couldn't give a damn about... the cliches are all I got left. The cheer_dad is tapped out. (WTF, did I just refer to myself in the third person?)

So, tonight as I go "out on the town" to "tie one on" forgive me if I say something goofy like "smoke 'em if ya got 'em" or "do you need a nipple for that beer?" Just be sure that you "respect me in the morning" and tell me I "look like hell" or "like somethin' the cat dragged in," but somebody for damn sure better be offerin' me a little of "the hair of the dog that bit me!" It's gonna be one of those nights folks!

Regards,

cheer_dad

WARNING, the F-bomb will be dropped in this post...

A friend of ours has been wronged, by a cowardly, lying, insignificant, little man. She was fired without cause yesterday! (Don't stop and question that statement to yourself, it is what it is, she got fired for nothing.) The girl was fired from her job of 1-1/2 years having never been written up, reprimanded, or otherwise informed that she wasn't doing a good job for her employer. All that she was told when she was fired Friday evening at "closing-time" was that she and the worthless bastard of a boss just weren't going to be able to get along anymore. Oh and by the way the sniveling little weasel didn't even have the balls to fire her on his own, he called the manager of the other office and had him do it while he pretended to run off on an errand. When our friend asked what she had done to deserve being fired she was told "nothing." She reminded the other little weasel of a man that did the firing that she had never been written up or reprimanded in any official manner. Further, reminded him there was nothing like that in her personnel file. He agreed. Then, she paused to ask, was there something in her file that she wasn't aware of... This wasn't answered, so much. She asked to see what, if anything, was in her file and then she was told that "he didn't have to show her anything as she was no longer an employee." What a miserable fuck! Only the guy who caused her to be fired can possibly eclipse his degree of "fuck-ness" in my mind at the moment. I'm not sure what the girl will do now. Of course, life will go on, it always does whether we like it or not. She'll find another job and hopefully a better working condition for herself. Big Red and I will do anything we can to help her. We went out with her last night and some of her other friends to console her, make sure she ate, and help get her at least somewhat liquored up. She has my deepest sympathies. Her enemy is also my enemy. She will seek legal counsel, which I can't blame her at all. There are additional matters with which to be reckoned (i.e. harassment and behavior bordering on stalking.) I hope she shoves them all straight up his ass. I reserve for him my worst condemnation... he's a Motherless Fuck!

Okay, to those of you who think I've gone a little "blue" on you here. Cracked the "profanity nut" so to speak... You know me. You know it takes a great deal to make me angry. I have had 40 years to tame and train a temper, and honestly playing cards and avoiding tilt for the last several of those years has benefited me greatly. BUT, there is a time for anger. There is also a time for revenge. Yes, there are times every once in a great while someone really does deserve an ass-kicking. And on top of that sometimes only one thing'll make you feel better, and my friend Erik P, once summed that up quite well. "Sometimes, the only thing that will make you feel better is just to punch someone in the face!" I know, I know civilized society dictates otherwise. But how many times have you really just wanted to a little "Sopranos-style" justice? Take the guy down to pavement, and just kick the shit out of him!

Anyway, as I do on a number of occasions, I look for a quote to sum up my mood and general outlook on life. I've taken to finding one throughout the week and emailing it to my team at work, as a way of provoking thought, reflection, and a small attempt at building team unity. The jury's still out on whether or not it helps, but it does tend to get people talking. That's never a bad thing... I think. Today, I needed a quote to help me grasp it all. So I headed over to the Subjects page of http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/ to find one. My thoughts and mood are anger and revenge. Luckily, for me they had both. Unfortunately, most quotes on the matter, were a bit mamby-pamby for my taste at least for today. "Live and let live," "turn the other cheek," "hug a friggin' tree," gimme a break! These weren't what I was looking for. I wanted a quote with teeth, and searing venom. I got your Chicken Soup for the Soul right here! I was very nearly about to settle with a Klingon quote of "Revenge is a dish best served cold," when I came across these two, and although my interpretation may not today be what the author had in mind, it made me feel better, so just deal with it:

"I have a right to my anger, and I don't want anybody telling me I shouldn't be, that it's not nice to be, and that something's wrong with me because I get angry." ~Maxine Waters

I liked the sentiment here. Anger is an emotion that's mine, and I'm entitled to it. Right on Maxine...

The other, gets a little more old school:

"If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared." ~Niccolo Machiavelli

Take that one either way you want, but I think of it this way. If you're going to do a thing be prepared for the fallout, otherwise you'd better make sure to beat someone down so far that they can't get up to do anything about it. In this particular instance he hurt her, knocked her down... but she got back up. Has he never heard of "Hell hath no fury, like a woman scorned!?!"

In closing... payback's a bitch. See the picture above? Better lube up.

Regards,

cheer_dad

What a frustrating day...again!

It's been one of those days, one of those weeks. Just more steps back than forward it seems. I spent a lot of time this week troubleshooting the problems of others as well as my own. Both, were equally frustrating and pointless. I'd like to elaborate more on the problems of others, but I'm sure some trade secret or other would be broken as a result, so let's just suffice it say that a programmer's website just isn't performing as he'd like it to. While I can't fully account for why, I can't fully discount to anybody's satisfaction that it is not the fault of the infrastructure. Here's a clue for all you quick thinkers... our group takes care of the infrastructure. It may very well just be some data transfer issues, but I can't prove it since that's not my area of access or influence. Still I've got to act as the intermediary. Yeah, the picture sums up how I feel about it all.

Anyway... aside from the problems of others, I've been dealing with some computer problems of my own too. Of course my troubleshooting efforts brought me some problems of my own. While tweaking and re-tweaking... some of the settings caused me a few problems. Unfortunately, they appeared much larger than they really were. There was information that I didn't have though. A number of the websites that I routinely access I just couldn't get to anymore. Wacky error messages, timeouts, etc... So, I delve back in to the whole mess to undo what I thought I'd done. I learn much later that, network issues were to blame, and so I was barking up the wrong tree. I couldn't fix it...but didn't know it and ended up making an even bigger mess of things. Several hours later, cups of coffee, and a migraine I end up having to undo all of my fixing. Anyway, it's over now well at least I hope so.

Sorry that was all purposely vague wasn't it.

One ray of brightness, I ended up making back some of the bankroll last night online, over at PokerRewards. Enough so I can say I'm back to square one anyway. Now just turn the corner and turn the profits out and it'll be all downhill from there. Yeah right who am I kidding. Just keep on keepin' on. Play your best, study, learn, play some more, and don't let it get in your head, and the rest will take care of itself.

Cole's got a baseball game tonight, and I'm sure there's homework to contend with before we leave. I just want him to have a good time tonight. I don't want to be hounding him about what to do and how to do it. Tonight I just want him to play the game. Treat it like a game and have no greater expectation than that. I want for him, for something to just go right that he can smile about and be proud. And I want to see the expression of joy on his face as a result. We could all use a little more joy in our lives, and I guess I don't do everything that I can to help him live that way. I'm a little slow on that... and sometimes I'm hard on him, and Whitney for that matter. I'm going to try and remedy it on both counts.

Regards,

cheer_dad

WTF kinda week

Somebody 'splain it all to me. Really! I mean there is the brink of insanity and then, there is, the ABYSS!

The workplace has just given me SOOO many WTF moments this week. Conflict among the team, personal attacks, some downright hateful things said to people face to face. I just don't get it. Being nice I recognize can be a chore, but how about some common friggin' courteousy, and if that's too much how 'bout just not being mean. Is that too much to ask... in the WORKPLACE.

At some point I'm sure one or more people looked down at their WWJD bracelets and decided the answer was... " Oh yeah, it's go time! Yer goin' down!" I really wish I could go into more detail about it all, but somehow, somewhere I'm sure it wouldn't be ethical. Besides it's not nice to talk about STUPID people.

All I know is that I would love to be at the poker table with a few of these guys right now. Soon whatever chips they had would be in front of me. I believe they would reach new heights of "tilt." Oh while I'm on the subject of poker I'll mention the two games I know about that are coming up in the very near future. TONIGHT, is cash game night at the Shumans. And next Saturday April 19th, is the next NDPT tournament being hosted by the Wolfe's. Yes there will be howling at the moon. I may even redeclare my war on the accursed Jack Daniels.

It's been the kind of week I'd just like to take off for Wheeling or better yet Vegas right now. Just cram a wad of cash in my pocket and away I'd go. Probably just as well though, I'd likely bleed off my stack, to some ass hat.

Well be kind to one another this weekend and beyond.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Midnight oil burning again...

Work has a way of just flaring up when you least expect it. I'm still here. Since 6:30am this morning, I've been here. It was a light/boring day, until we learned there was a server down. Even then, it didn't directly involve me, but near the end of the day, it became my problem to share in. About an hour and a half ago, we just got a restore job kicked off to get things back up and running. Ancient unsupported hardware, running a decrepit excuse for an operating system being backed up by over-the-hill backup software that's buggy in the first place, couple that with the fact that recent security settings rendered two "like servers" into total friggin' strangers. We are just now only 55% of the way along on the FULL restore. Following this...there are DIFFS to be done. Whenever that finally completes, and the last hoorah of a reboot is done, will we know if any of this even worked, or was worth the effort. Either way, the fallout will not be pretty. For all our best efforts, it will still fall short of expectations.

On a bright side, the OT will help pave the way to Vegas... Right now, though, I'm not feeling very lucky.

Regards,

cheer_dad

What news from the world of men?

The light...it burns... I've been elbow deep in paperwork of the most horrendous kind, more specifically contractual documentation. Ugh! Mufasa! So, I've done little other than wade through terms like interconnection, infrastructure, and "organization a" agrees to (blank) for "organization b." Really mind numbing when you hit the same form sheet for the umpteenth customer. But that's why they pay me the "big bucks." I'm still waiting for them.

It's trick or treat night, and I'm still trying to decide whether or not I'm going to be working over tonight. I'm hoping and leaning toward NOT! Just too many things going on. Last night was a long evening anyway. I did my walk at lunch, then when I got home, I fired up the treadmill, for another 30 minutes. Then, I made dinner and went over Cole's story, for his Reading test the following day. In the midst of dinner (the kids and I) Teresa walks in, it appears that Whitney neglected to tell me what I was supposed to be doing...mowing the lawn. So 'round about 6:30, out I go to "start" the task. I finished the mowing. Couldn't trim, or much else. In fact, I think I'll have to go back and double check the yard for missed patches of grass. It gets really friggin' dark by 7:30. I had to ask Cole to turn on some outside lights, so I could get as far along as I did. I'm sure the neighbors were getting a good laugh at the idiot in the dark with the mower.

I realized that I had not mentioned my online play, or bankroll in a while. Well, I haven't honestly played in a while. I have moved my Bodog account up to the $175 mark. Oh and last night I dabbled at a couple of $1 SNG's on Sportsbook.com. The first, I crippled myself when I hit a boat, and lost to the bigger one. Oops! The second, took a LONG time. The chip leader decides to take a powder when we're down to 5. Me and "Bitsy Bets", polish off the rest of the table and then I think his name was "hix11" finally rejoins us. It took a long time, but I finally caught up to him, and between me and "BB" we finally took him down. So, here I am, looking to come out with more than I put in on the two SNG's. Now I'm focusing on the heads-up game. I'm applying pressure in all the right spots. I'm catching up, in a big way. I started heads up with $2,500. I made it to around $7,200...THEN, the table freezes! I check my connection, and it's okay. I hit Google, and I'm still surfing. I even refresh the tournament listings on Sportbook, and it is responsive. Only too late do I close the table and re-open it, to find my stack has been ravaged down to $150. It's shit like that which makes me wonder what the hell is going on sometimes. But the "what" was..."me losing." Same story...you've read it before.

I've listened to several podcasts lately, and I've listened to some of the "top" online players recap their rise to greatness in the poker world, from lowly beginnings. Annette_15 the winner of the WSOPE, all 19 yrs of her, relayed starting out at freerolls, and finally winning $9. Then maneuvering that into SNG's and then Multi-table tournaments. Over time she took that to around $20,000 before really starting to "move money around." She like many of the other interview-ees, espoused the virtues of Bankroll Management. Not just playing your best, and learning and discussing every day, but they found that time was the best weapon available, and the only way to get it was bankroll management. Enabling yourself to play the long term grind. How it wasn't always fun, but absolutely essential. I actually think I might have been further along had the ban on Internet Poker became a semi-reality. I "flinched" a bit too much when they pulled the plug. I withdrew from some places but continued to play as before. Of course I blackjacked some of it off. And the player base continued to improve, since it was more difficult to get money out there, so only those who had money out there, and knew how to keep it and earn it, were your competition. The fish in the pond, weren't fish, and you were no longer in a pond anymore, my friend.

Well that'll have to bring the post to a close. An alarm went off letting me know it's meeting time, very shortly. Oh goodie, I can feel my fun-factor meter beginning to rise.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Wage Slave

The "Debt" got its pound of flesh out of me today. There really is no end in sight to the madness at work. Arbitrary decisions, conflicting goals, inconsistent enforcement throughout the organization, lip service to customer service but no proof in the pudding. Each day I see larger roadblocks to accomplishing actual work. Metrics be the buzz word of the day. It's all about measuring it...and not about doing it. So much so that the work disappears behind the shadow of tracking it. More focus is placed on opening and closing trouble tickets, and service requests than actually accomplishing the associated work. No recourse but to keep showing up and doin' the job though. Happiness, joy, job satisfaction all things of the past, and they're not showing any signs of returning ANY TIME soon. Man, this really bites.

How do decisions get made in an organization which create such dismal working conditions. I think the lot of us is FED up. I keep expecting to show up to work tomorrow and find that half the people quit and moved on a greener pasture. Other days, I keep expecting someone to go postal, and start mowing we lemmings down. Duck and cover...or is it hunker down and pray for daylight.

I wish I could end this on a positive note...but can't.

Regards,

cheer_dad