niv.elscorcho.org

low expectations, high returns

niv@elscorcho.org (niv) — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:59:51 EST

i didn't have high expectations for april (see: this)

but now i'm engaged
and jen and i are moving to california

my hope for this month

niv@elscorcho.org (niv) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:24:16 EST

i hope that baby mama makes it clear to anyone who is under the impression that tina fey is a funny person that they are in fact wrong and she is in fact not.

i know the best poker player in the world

niv@elscorcho.org (niv) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 02:45:12 EST

andrew rosskamm, poker champion

nation states

niv@elscorcho.org (niv) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:11:15 EST

nationstates.net

this site has been around since 2002, but i'm only learning about it now. here is wikipedia's entry about it. i only learned about it because the goddamn UN sued them. how awesome is that - sued by the UN.

anyway, a quick word of suggestion - i think this site could be cool, and not too much work to get going. if you want to join my 'region', it's called morelandia. you can border the duchy of joeairbear - tell me that isn't enticing.

more things later. like that bk king from the future, that's so good with his hands - whats that about?

profiting in vegas

niv@elscorcho.org (niv) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:27:52 EST

i've been back from vegas for 6 days and i haven't really talked about it. like i mentioned a few posts ago, i finished up for the trip. right now the count is at +$150, after my memphis pick 'em and over 133.5 parlay on the game last night hit. i have a pending $50 bet on the angels under 92 wins, so the range is going to end up between +$100 and +$200 - a strong win, especially given the length of the trip. the longer you stay there, the more likely all your money is gone.

this trip followed a model that started by default last may, when work sent me to a conference in vegas. jen came too, and the resulting trip was low on gambling, high on good food, and very, very relaxed. last june, i went on another trip with trilling. this trip was originally going to be a root on andrew, but he had to bail. the resulting 'gay vacation' was relaxed, high on good food, and incredibly fun.

so here are the simple rules i tried to follow in my most recent trip and i will try to follow in future trips:

a) gambling is always going to be there, so don't play games or limits you don't want to play, and don't buy back in at a table where you don't feel comfortable. this rule is the hardest for me to follow, but i have improved leaps and bounds over my first few trips.

b) watch more sports. honestly, the 3rd/4th rounds of this year's tournament were overall lacking, so this was hard to follow this trip. rumors of future trips during baseball season, if true, would make this rule far easier to enforce.

c) limit the drinking. i did this in a big way this trip, and it was definitely the right move. when not in vegas, drinking excessively leaves you feeling shitty in the morning and dehydrates you greatly. this, of course, is still true IN vegas. so i limited the drinking to one night, and the whole crew was very light on drinking overall. i strongly recommend. unless you're an alcoholic, of course. then go nuts.

d) sleep. we're there for 4 nights, there's plenty of time to do all the cool shit you want to do, so don't force yourself out of the room at 9 and don't come back to the room at 6. yes, one day i did come back to the room at 6am and left the room again at 9 or 10am. but that was only one day, and i let myself crash early that night.

basically, if you've been to vegas a few times, these rules are obvious. if you're going for your first time, you're not going to listen to these rules. so, these rules are just for me to remind myself.

oh, one rule of ncaa tourney betting - lines are set with a heavy bias towards the previous game. so kansas +3 against unc was an obvious pick, for example - davidson was underrated (especially on defense), the pace of that game was completely wack, and unc had not played against any athletic team this season - louisville was probably the best team they had played ALL YEAR. so yeah, don't let close games in previous rounds color your opinion too much.

i'm rambling now, but whatever.

i think i'll save my fantasy post for sometime this week. i like my team reasonably well, but its off to a slow start. hopefully my offense picks up a little bit.

ok i've petered out here. have a good month, in case i don't come back for that long.

photographs

niv@elscorcho.org (niv) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:44:15 EST

just posted photos from march, including vegas pics and the complete set from the docks trip round 2. check them out here.

during the month of may, my photos will be on the walls of the race street cafe in philadelphia. i'm pretty excited about this opportunity, which zach hooked me up with. if you're in the area, you should go check 'em out.

go look at photos! fantasy baseball post coming soon...

oh brother

niv@elscorcho.org (niv) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:30:36 EST

nick and i continue our conversation

i'm back from vegas, i won for the first time ever, and now its time to grind it out until europe in 2 weeks. hope everyone else is enjoying spring springing.

vegas today!

niv@elscorcho.org (niv) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:43:17 EST

alright, so roy gave me an account on his collective blog so that i could disagree with someone about politics. if you don't care about this, IGNORE ME (venture brothers reference!), and if you are interested, you can read what i wrote here.

i might start cross-posting. is that allowed?

vegas tomorrow

niv@elscorcho.org (niv) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:51:18 EST

so radio silence is going to continue for a little bit longer.

mac os x 10.5.2 bug!

niv@elscorcho.org (niv) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:54:41 EST

so far, the transition to macbook pro land has been pretty smooth. i really like the photography workflow i've established over there, and its a joy to use that operating system after years of thinking computers required work. i know, it all sounds cliche, but cliches are true.

anyway, i've run into a bug, and maybe someone will google this and confirm it or point out the flaw i am making. here is the scenario:

lightroom open.
lightroom database is local
lightroom source files (raw format pictures) are on a network share

so in this scenario, if i edit a file in photoshop by right-clicking in lightroom and doing 'edit in photoshop', make my edits, and save the file, i get an error saying that the file is opened somewhere else. this persists unless i quit lightroom. so, lightroom is putting an exclusive lock on the network file, which is something it does not do to local files - i've tried, no such issue when the image files are local. of course, this is probably an operating system bug, because lightroom does not do this on the PC.

so, i think mac os x 10.5.2 puts program-level exclusive locks on open network files (which makes sense, on some level), something it does not do for local files, and something OTHER operating systems do at best on an operating system level, or at worst don't do at all.

i am getting decent at this software thang.