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In poker news, I had an ugly end to July. Glad to see the back of it to be honest, I always seem to have a poor record in this month. Going to try to put in a ton of volume in August, just need to iron out the kinks in my game, old Mr Station is creeping back in and I need to find the happy medium between him and Master Scared of the Nuts.
Loved the Olympic opening ceremony, followed by be really disappointed by Team GB's performance so far. Yesterday was finally a good day and many kudos to all the medalists. Of course you can quite rightly say I can't do as well in Judo or Cycling as some people I may be frustrated by. Very true, but I haven't been paid for my image rights for a Limited Edition Shampoo set, I haven't done several documentaries saying how I'm going to win X event. This is not a cross the board criticism, there have been some great Team GB performances which have got no where near a medal (Zoe Smith in the weightlifting springs to mind). If they are getting close to PBs or even breaking British records then hats off to them, fabulous effort. If they have trained at the Olympic venue for 18 months and don't even qualify for the final then I think the people who have been hammered by merchandise salespeople and Olympic levies have a right to be disappointed. Never to the level of some of the twitter trolls you've seen in the news, but we are allowed a very British tutting.
Come on Tommy, cheer up - let's get behind the guys & gals and just enjoy the whole shebang - this is a once in a generation event & we won't know what we had til it's gone!
Def thumbs up4the ceremony - Bond, Bean, Becks & Brunel - Best of British!
Gl 4the Aug Grind, I'm gona try to get my highest ever points total aswell (20k+).
EDIT - Saw Dark Knight last night, enjoyed it but didn't understand what happened @ the end! Pls cud u PM me if u hav time, many thanks.
Mucho Congratos to the Gold and Silver Medalists in Team GB C2 Canoing and all of the medalists. Going to diary about the young lady who's in the Judo final later, still in bits after watching the semi final bout.
That was when I fell in love with the Olympics, well before the extraordinary scenes and success we have seen this weekend. I now have come to realise that London and Great Britain not only will benefit from this but needed it.
So why my hysteria and negativity before the start? Not my normal attitude, I'm in general positive and very rarely become as off the calm considered way of thinking as I became before these games started. The simple fact as i see it is that most of the people of Great Britain have lost faith in so many things.
The banks let us down, then we bailed them out. They seemed to react to this by rubbing our noses in it and just carried on how they always did. Everyone went skint apart from the people who made us all skint.
We've lost faith in politicians, we feel they are all the same, very few have the interests of the people at heart, only their own expense charging self serving ways. None of them can affect any change and won't try.
We've lost faith in the police. We don't believe they can keep us safe anymore, they are swamped in paperwork and health and safety. The riots happened and there wasn't a thing they could do about it. They were also, rightly or wrongly, blamed for the riots starting in the first place
We've lost faith in the news media, too absorbed in selling their work on the back of celebrity culture and sleaze they now hack the phones of the families of dead children and fallen solders while putting no-marks on their front pages. It's not about news and balanced critique anymore, it's about shifting copies/ad-space while keeping us all scared because they insist in telling us there is a suicide bomber hiding in every corner and everything gives you cancer. Fear and sex sells copy, damn the news.
We've lost faith in the education system, most young people are told they only have unemployment to look forward to unless they are born into the higher classes. Teachers are blamed for not producing well rounded individuals while having their hands tied up from actual teaching because of a thousand levels of paperwork and box checking which must be seen to be done. The public have lost faith in teachers because all they hear about are kids with knives stabbing each other before settling into a life on benefits with fourteen children of their own.
We've lost faith in heroes, because now heroes are not people who fight wars or save people from fires, they are people who can score a goal and be snap called a legend. They then fall out of a nightclub at three in the morning yet in the time it takes for their hangover to clear they earn more than we do in a year. The people we used to cheer as one of us now are so disconnected due to money and being told they were great for their skill for so long (in other words they have never heard the word 'no' since their parents were told they could make millions) that we can't relate to them or they to us. But will still burn our money on them anyway.
We've lot faith in each other. Maybe it's more of a London attitude but people avoid the simple human contact of saying 'Good Morning' to each other as much as they can. We seem paranoid that the stranger is evil, the work college has it in for us and the boss is doing everything they can to keep us down. We have no belief in the Good Samaritan, no thought that anyone will actually do a selfless act and anyone who does is obviously after something.
We're at a low in this country, but I'll be damned if the Olympics aren't pulling us out of it by the throat. I was scared before the games started. Not that we wouldn't get medals, I was scared the actual running of it would be an embarrassment to the country. I had visions of Ussain Bolt missing the 100m final while stuck in traffic, the swimming delayed because the pool was leaking and Boris setting himself alight with the torch. You see before the Games it had become very taboo in Great Britain to be proud of the country. The Cross of St George is constantly asked to be taken down in a variety of places because we lost that flag to a far right bunch of buffoons. The shame on us is we never took it back. The Union Flag suffers the same stigma, although to a lesser extent. Other countries beam with pride when they hear their anthem or see their flag, we in general have our head down and scuttle on politely. The Games is bleeding that rightful pride back into us. For the most part it's being run superbly. Yes there is a ticket issue but from what I can see this was actually out of our control. The venues are stunning, the volunteers are making these games by giving up time for free to help us, to make our day and experience better. Britain is pulling together for the games. You can feel it, everyone is smiling a little easier, everyone is just a little more happy and more importantly it's now deemed ok to express pride in our country Will it last? Hopefully, but one thing is for sure, it hasn't hurt.
Well that was a bit of an essay, been a while....
I think a lot of people are feeling the same. The riots really did more damage to the national psyche than we ever thought IMO. The Olympics are helping us get over that.
I don't think the Sports Personality award is a foregone conclusion. I know Wiggins is an overwhelming favourite right now but Ennis with be right in the mix plus if Murray can win the US Open I think he might pip the lot of them. Either way John Terry will be stripped and ready to collect it.
I barely watched the Men's football, I watched a lot of the women's footy and really enjoyed it, but I'm very much over Men's football at the moment. It's great to get into these other sports and to see the amazing talent within them.
went there on Friday with the family and had a great time
the volunteers certainly helped make the day as they were all great, even when they couldn't help they did their best. facilities at the Olympic Park are great, everyone happy as well.
my son (age 9) is certainly enjoying it seeing sports he hasn't seen before. he likes his sport and you never know he might get inspired. here's hoping!!
I'll just add my two pence worth on your other post aswell, if I may.
I was having a chat with my Corporate Services Director before a meeting @ work yesterday & he expressed a similar view to yourself - he said that he was worried we would make a complete horlicks of these Olympics before they started and was quite relieved that we hadn't and was really enjoying them now.
I remember when we were bidding for these games, the general negativity surrounding our bid (again, there was this talk of "embarrasing" ourselves by using Beckham as a PR stunt etc - followed by the spontaneous joy when we beat Paris to get them.
What is this peculiar British mindset to continually beat ourselves up about everything? I simply don't get it. Yes, no doubt the riots were appalling - I live in Wood Green, right next to the heart of where these riots started - I saw scores of kids, teens & young adults smashing and raiding Wood Green Shopping City @ 2am & brazenly & calmly walking off with their ill gotten gains (most without even covering their faces, & their were dozen of arrests in the next couple of weeks).
I was shocked and appalled by the senseless looting & damage and burning of shops, buildings & people's livelihoods, even though I am so used to being surrounded by crime, having lived in (relatively) poor areas of SE & N London all my life.
& yes - our banks, politicians & press have all let us down.
However, we have bounced back from those riots (& 7/7, which tragically occured the day after we won the right to host the games) - & we will bounce back from everything else too.
I just wish people were generally a lot more positive about what we have in life - yes, a certain degree of cynicism is healthy - but it all too quickly seems to descend into carping, snidey self-flaggelation, this is not good for the heart & spirit peeps!
Even in 2012, we are still the 7th largest economy in the world & currently sit 3rd (!!) in the Olympic medal table. We live on a beautiful island & don't get taxed for playing the game we love - be proud & happy of who you are and where you are from, no matter who you are or where that is.
I'll leave you with a link to my favourite prose, which sums up my philosophy to life in general - I hope you like it: http://www.inspirational-short-stories.com/desiderata-poem.html
Peace.
Priyesh (AKA PJ / Jingle).
I know what ya mean about the potential to make more LOTR films, I've read the books and they are brilliant. So many major things were left out IMO like Tom Bombadill (don't quote me on the spelling), but loads of people moaned enough that they were like 9 hours combined, another 4-5 on top might have been a bit much.
I might be wrong, but I don't think LOTR is 30x longer than the Hobbit or even close to that. Obviously we're going into page size, font size etc but my LOTR is only about 1500 pages, which would make the Hobbit 50 pages (which it's not lol). Good book though, not just for kids
Now, what IS a magnificent performance... Ed Norton in American History X. Sorry Tommy, total diary hi-jacking here lol.
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On a poker note to you though Tommy, how did you get so good at cash, what helped you to make the most progress? The clinic, reviewing your own hands, railing good cash players, watching 865 (861)?
I've enboldened those bits because that is the legacy I want to see out of thee games. There is so little for children to do outside of the home and it takes a little ommph for them to find these activities. It'd be great if more children got on a bike or went into a boxing ring for example. Not just the ones with great talent, but the vast majority who can develop better social skills, self discipline and fitness through sport. Money needs to be invested in sports clubs and activities for kids outside of the Playstation, but with the demand comes the supply. Hopefully it happens.
I am extremely positive about what I have in life and I think most Brits are. We just seem to regard the over enthusiastic chest beating pride in countries that other nationalities have to be somewhat unseemly. As such we are kind of down on ourselves for some reason. It's just the British disposition I guess, we go all angry if someone from outside of Great Britain has a pop at us but we feel free to run ourselves down any chance we get.
Lovely poem as well by the way.
Wood Green eh? That's only up the road from me (ok, the North Circ is a long road but the fact still stands). Do you play any live games in the area at all?
Oh and I thought what Morrissey said was hideous. I guess he needs to shift a few albums again.
I hardly play live (but might play more in future) - are you going to DTD Notts next month for SPT or £500k deepstack? Hopefully meet u there if u r.
What are you doing in Poland mate? Must be interesting to be watching the Olympics in the UK from another country.
Back to Batman, I think Bale and Nolan are done now unless they push forward a JLA film. That would take years though.
The Hobbit is a perfect sized book to be split into two films. The LOTR series probably needed about nine films to get anywhere near covering everything. I loved the trilogy but I was gutted with a few of the omissions (ironically the battle when they returned to the Shire was a main one, which would have been another ending to add to the dozen there already was). I also didn't like how they shoehorned a greater role for Arwen but I guess they needed more female characters in the first one. But on the whole I loved the series and am really looking forward to The Hobbit.
I read the LOTR trilogy when I was 11 I think, reread them before the films came out as well. Bit of a commitment those. Have you read 'The Silmarillion?' It's basically the total history/bible of Tolkien's world. To put LOTR in context, the complete events of the series are covered by a few paragraphs in the book. So if anyone wants to save a little time, just read that bit
Read it after LOTR and wasn't as impressed.
Never read Harry Potter
Thought the films of LOTR were great. Difficult to fit it all in.
Bookworm myself Wacko. 2nd favourite trilogy!? Go to know the 1st?
Not a trilogy but The Belgariad and subsequent I thought were great.
Raymond Feist's Magician/Silverthorn/Darkness at Sethanon are also great but subequent ones not so.
Love David Gemmell/Robert Jordan/Terry Goodkind......
What about you Tommy?