Suitedjustice's Ongoing Mid-life Crisis
I woke up in the middle of choking to death again; though to be accurate, it was towards the end of the process--woke up right away in a white hot panic with black spots of permanent unconsciousness swooping in across both sides of my vision.
Calm yourself, was the first important step. My lungs were soaked, steeped in the things that belonged only in my stomach, and locked up tight. My air passage was blocked and burning with bile and hydrochloric acid. No, I don't have asthma. I have a drinking problem.
Spoiler
Though, now that I think about it, is that inhaler thing any good? Maybe I'll try a hit sometime, just to see.
This was last Friday, just a few hours after I'd quit my office job of twelve years to take a shot at playing poker for a living out West in Nevada. This will not be my first shot at gambling for a living; although I have only tried something like this once before, many years ago.
Around the turn of the century I quit college most of the way through my senior year and I moved out to Las Vegas for 8 years. My experiences were somewhat of interest: rampant drunkenness, a stolen lab animal, solid card counting, North Korean meth, time spent with Mormons, advantage slot grinding, a cowardly pass on an FBI Most Wanted bounty, facing contempt of court charges, and dressing up as Albus Dumbledore. You can find that in my BBV thread.
[U][url]https://forumserver.twoplustwo.c...[/U][/URL] .
That thread held up pretty well in BBV, which is not nothing.
Starting meditative relaxation can be problematic when you're dying from choking on your own puke. I sat up straight, blind from the black splotches that had slapped away the weak light of the kitchen stove. I dropped my shoulders, relaxed my chest and upper arms, and then, projecting calm with all my might, I tried my throat. I pictured my lungs and throat opening up just a tiny passage, for just a little air to go by--something to get me started. And they did, untethering just the smallest little rivulet of air, and it made the most terrifying sound as it went through. It always does.
Whatever you've heard from actors pretending to gasp after being choked, the reality is worse. At least no one was with me this time. When that's been the case, the other person has invariably freaked the **** out when they've heard my gasping and choking routine, which only adds the burden of myself having to reassure them through nodding and non-frantic gestures, so that they won't call 911, as I hate the idea of calling the cops.
April 13th of this year was 14 months without me having a drink. During that long stretch I had honestly forgotten why I'd quit. That's right, I had completely purged from my recall the years of nighttime memories of myself almost choking to death, this happening once or twice every couple of weeks on average. Now, the terrifying night wakeups didn't happen even once during the 14 dry months. But 3 weeks back into drinking--oh yeah--there was that thing, wasn't there?.
Now, there was something else I'd forgotten about. And that's the Double Tap. The Double Tap happens when I don't force my drunk and tired and traumatized self to remain awake for a good two or three hours after a choking incident. If I fall back asleep before then, I wake up choking to death all over again. And sure enough, that happened last Friday, and I had to save myself again.
So on Saturday I jumped back on the waggy, and Cinco de Mayo is now my new anniversary date, and that's really enough about drinking. I'm not here to write about that business. I should have been done with it; and now I am.
My flight leaves for Reno in a few hours, and I'll be out there for the next 3 weeks scouting out the live poker games in the city. If I like it, that's where I'm moving to.
Great poast, Suited. I also enjoyed rereading those two old poasts about exercising.
I still do push-ups myself every morning, more or less alternating between just a few and a lot (actually not that many, but enough that it hurts at the end). I cannot bear the thought of having skipped my push-ups even once, which is likely the main reason why I've been able to maintain the routine.
Thanks Sheep!
Now, do you vary the easy days and harder days according to a set schedule? Or do you make that decision on the day? And, if so, what are the factors that influence that decision?
Thanks Sheep!
Now, do you vary the easy days and harder days according to a set schedule? Or do you make that decision on the day? And, if so, what are the factors that influence that decision?
I've had the same schedule for the harder work-outs for many years. I do these sets four times a week, always on the same days.
Fairly recently, I've started to do only a couple of push-ups on the remaining three days. That hasn't helped me get better "results" on the harder days, but whatever - it only takes a couple of seconds of my time.
Very solid post Suited 
So, during that last session, no longer having the drink option, I centered myself. I did some breathing exercises, and I relaxed my muscles wherever I found tension. Ohmmmmmmmmmmm.
And damn if that didn't work like a charm. I played a 6 hour session, keeping myself relaxed, and I came out of it feeling great. It's still something new that I'll have to work on, but I believe that I've made a breakthrough, simple and obvious and silly in retrospect as it seems.
Yeah, breathing exercises along with scanning my body (a la Vipassana) is my go-to when we reach the wee hours of the morning during live MTTs : it definitely is the best tool at the table when exhaustion starts to kick in, imho.
Very solid post Suited
Yeah, breathing exercises along with scanning my body (a la Vipassana) is my go-to when we reach the wee hours of the morning during live MTTs : it definitely is the best tool at the table when exhaustion starts to kick in, imho.
Thanks Dubnjoy000! I'll try it again tomorrow, only right from the get-go.
All right, I give up. What's the reference?
So Internet conventional wisdom is saying that we don't dream about using our phones or other electronic devices. I've been keeping a dream eye on it for the last week, and so far it's held up.
No cell phones in my dreams last night, but there was a slot machine, all bonused up and ripe for the harvest. That counts as an electronic device.
I misremembered the calendar and showed up at the poker room on a bad day for promos, but I stuck around for 2 hours and just played the game as it was presented.
$-10 on the slots and +$210 on the poker. I'll try to make a full day of it tomorrow.
Without my fellow promo nits present, the table was actually pretty damn good. There might be a lesson in comparing the promo hourly vs the non-promo player pool advantage, assuming that the latter exists, and that I can estimate an hourly boost from it with any accuracy. The poker room also had a tournament going, so we had donkament bustouts joining the table as well...another factor to consider, as they keep the promos to a minimum on tourney days.
I was relaxed again, and I feel that I'm getting better reads on players in that state. I labored under the idea that being tense might help me pick up necessary reads, given the etymological relationship between the words tension and attention, but really the only major read one makes while in fight or flight mode is "a threat until proven otherwise." Poker requires more nuance than that.
I'm watching The Maltese Falcon for the first time, and enjoying Peter Lorre going to town.
And that, of course, explains the homage by another famous character...
Four hours on the slots, +$35; three hours at the tables, +$49.
I played well today, and I made some good reads, but I ate a heavy lunch, because I didn't want to wait in a long line for the light lunch option, and that put me into a food coma, so I didn't return to the tables. I'll have to plan my day better than that, and eat a light breakfast at home first.
I also made two bad misclicks on the Ultimate X machines, and it cost me a lot. On these units, the bet max button is located just below the change denomination buttons, and one little slip of the finger means making an unintentional max bet on a screen where there are no bonuses. I have to click buttons through dozens of screens for each machine, so my fingers are typically flying around, and today I made two slip-ups, each for $30 per misclick.
Occasionally when I slip up, I'll hit something by accident—I should, after all, get more than 90% of my misclicks back in payouts, on average, given the drop—but this time I whiffed on both, so I'm $60 poorer for that.
I found a new favorite flavor from MGM's free soda machine. Coke Zero Cream Soda flavor. Doesn't sound particularly appealing, but I like it. It skips the diet aftertaste that 95% of the other flavors carry.
i only do the zero calorie stuff - fun fact, i looked up how it's zero calorie and a lot of that stuff is made with flavor enhancers that we are unable to digest hence the zero calorie it just passes through
here's my go to at the magical million flavors in one fountains
seltzer water
zero calorie powerade
coke zero cherry vanilla
will occasionally mix in some diet rootbeer or diet dr pepper for nostalgia
also some places have pretty decent coffee, but the coffee at mgm springfield is a love child between aids and the clap
i only do the zero calorie stuff - fun fact, i looked up how it's zero calorie and a lot of that stuff is made with flavor enhancers that we are unable to digest hence the zero calorie it just passes through
here's my go to at the magical million flavors in one fountains
seltzer water
zero calorie powerade
coke zero cherry vanilla
will occasionally mix in some diet rootbeer or diet dr pepper for nostalgia
also some places have pretty decent coffee, but the coffee at mgm springfield is a love child bet
Yeah, almost every flavor of Powerade Zero Calorie is good stuff. I'll drink that whenever I've had my fill of caffeine.
On the caffeinated front: several flavors of Diet Mr. Pibb are good.
MGM Springfield coffee makes the list of the 10 worst cups of coffee I've ever drank, but I'm such a creature of habit and lover of free stuff that I'll still take it occasionally. Mostly, I'll take a hot cup of that crap with me on the way out to the parking garage. If I'm jumped, I might at least be able to hurl it in my accoster's face.
A mixture of coke and cream soda?
oh how i miss childhood opportunities to sidle up on a stool of the rexall drug counter and order fountain coke or chocolate malt to accompany my burger and crinkle fries
and then take it to the back table surrounded with racks of superman and hulk comics
also vague memories of refrigerated water chests requiring a nickel to release glass bottles of soda from the incarcerating metal fingers keeping them submerged in ice
Yes. I think it's mostly Coke Zero tinged with the cream soda flavor, rather than a 50/50 mix. Whatever it is; it's great.
The awful coffee is free from the same stations that give out free soda. There's also a coffee kiosk at MGM that sells good, $4 cups of joe if you feel like indulging.
oh how i miss childhood opportunities to sidle up on a stool of the rexall drug counter and order fountain coke or chocolate malt to accompany my burger and crinkle fries
and then take it to the back table surrounded with racks of superman and hulk comics
also vague memories of refrigerated water chests requiring a nickel to release glass bottles of soda from the incarcerating metal fingers keeping them submerged in ice
I ran across an old coke machine when I was very young, but as collector's piece, not out in the wild. A friend of the family had one in his warehouse or whatever it was, and he kept it stocked with the little glass bottles, and the machine charged a nickel or a dime—I can't remember which—he took the loss on it. Young me found that whole setup fascinating.
I've never been to an old-timey soda fountain. Closest was a Macy's or a JC Penney counter restaurant. The old department stores used to have those.
i'm really not that old just grew up in a culturally time encapsulated part of the country
Yes. I think it's mostly Coke Zero tinged with the cream soda flavor, rather than a 50/50 mix. Whatever it is; it's great.
The awful coffee is free from the same stations that give out free soda. There's also a coffee kiosk at MGM that sells good, $4 cups of joe if you feel like indulging.
I ran across an old coke machine when I was very young, but as collector's piece, not out in the wild. A friend of the family had one in his warehouse or whatever it was, and he kept it stocked with the little g
I remember when I was in elementary school which was an older inner city school the gym coach was required to setup folding chairs for assemblies etc. He would get me and another kid to help and would pay us with a small bottle of Coke from an old school vending machine. It was awesome.
There's a house a couple blocks away that keeps a Coke machine on her back porch. The yards in that neighborhood are wide open, so it's accessible.
Apparently, the reason is to provide sodas for the neighborhood kids at 50 cents apiece. At least, that was the price five years ago, when the then-neighbor's kid and his friend used to ride their bikes over and get a soda.
I imagine at that price, they were taking a loss to do something for the neighborhood kids.
