BrawlMart

The car goes into Oren early in AM, and at midnight, I suddenly realize I have no food! Doh! So I figure I'll swing by the grocery and then drop my car off after and rollerblade home. Pretty boring daily (or in this case, nightly) chores.

I go to the Walmart on the street where I live, even though it's probably a mile further than the one on the other street where I live. When I lived with Brad, we'd go to the later one (the one on Rainbow) so I thought I'd try out the one on Charleston.

It's not like the Camby Walmart... everything was arranged differently. It was like... the Muncie and Anderson Meijers. The produce was right by the front door (typical) but the frozen food was right after. The pop was all the way in the back, in a little tiny corner. Actually, now that I think about it, it's like a mirror image of the Muncie Walmart too.

Anyway, I only shop out of four or five aisles at Walmart: the canned veggies, the condiment aisle, the "international" aisle which is either with the condiments or the rice, or both, and the frozen fruit aisle and the frozen veg aisle. That and the produce is pretty much it. Imagine my disappointment when after finding that all five of those aisles are right next to each other, but all were closed so they could wax the floors. I asked one of the guys in charge how long it would take before they would open the aisles. He tells me 5 hours. That seemed a bit excessive and thinking of how hungry I would be w/o getting groceries, I ask him if he would get an item for me. He tells me to wait 20 minutes and then go in and get what I need.

So, I plop down on the new merchandise and wait 20 minutes. The moment I go in, some short, stocky black woman gets right into my face and tells me I can't be there. I tell her that I was told I could, but she doesn't believe me and basically harasses me into leaving.

Now I'm not the only one who was inconvenienced, and the aisles were abuzz with comments about how they should only close one aisle at a time, and not 10 like they were doing at once. I don't know why, but on my way out, I decided to speak with a manager about the whole thing. Maybe he'll get me some spinach.

The first worker I ask says she can't do anything, "ask someone with a headset." The first person I see with a headset is the same guy who told me I could get what I needed the first time. I ask him to speak with a manager and he tells me there isn't one. I said, okay, I would like to speak with whomever is in charge. He puffs his chest and says, "I'm in charge." I ask him if I can get some spinach and he tells me that he already said I could but now I couldn't and wants to know why I didn't get it earlier. Meanwhile, the lady who was the reason conveniently walks up at that time, so I point to her and say, "she made me leave." I then turn to her and say, "this is the guy who said I could be in the aisles." and at that she wigs out. "That bitch better lay off me or I'm gonna kick her ass."

Did I just hear that right? I said, "excuse me?" and she says, "climb over this fence bitch and see what happens!" And at this point, the guy is holding her back as she puts on a show, threatening to fight me and calling me names.

I don't back down, but I also figure I might as well go to the other Walmart, so I leave without further confrontation and head for the checkout. As I'm checking out, there gets to be a gaggle of managers around the register next to me. Apparently, a couple overhead the exchange and they were aghast at the employee's behaviour and were sticking up for me. I guess I never showed any aggression, so they probably thought I was scared to death and decided to make a report.

I just wanted the whole thing to be dropped, but now I get the managers coming over to me asking for a statement. I say I don't want to make a big deal out of anything, but they insist, "every employee is a representative of Walmart." I felt like I had cheerleaders as I was recounting the whole story; it was bizarre... I kept thinking that poor stupid woman probably had kids and now was going to get fired.

I know it's weird to feel bad for her, but I had no hard feelings toward her. Truth be told, I wasn't really bothered at all, save a little shaking from the flight or fight adrenaline response that my body was now dissipating.

In fact, that was the first time in my life someone wanted to fight me where I wasn't afraid... it felt good! Before I always had the instinct to run, but this time was different. I felt like I could defend myself. It's hard to be mad at someone you never felt threatened by. Heck, she even made me feel good about myself!

As I'm talking to the cashier at the second Walmart, she tells me it's a crazy night. I told her my night too, was crazy, and at that she says, "it's just in the air then. Crazy for everyone." I then said, "My advice to you honey, don't back down!" Not knowing anything about what happened, she was still laughing as I was leaving. It was just one of those nights.

Home Sweeter Home

It's amazing what $15 and craigslist can do. I found the desk for $5 and a chair for $10 and suddenly, the room is transformed into a music studio, a coding office, and a home theatre. Save the chair, it still all fits comfortably in the Stratosphere. It's not perfect, but it's a good start.

It also got me up into North Las Vegas for only the second time. Not any closer to the mountains, but further up in the valley, I noticed a lot fewer trees around. Still, beautiful views abound. I got the desk where the further car was parked.

The chair took me even further north, to million dollar homes. I feel so exposed up here. It's so far away from Vegas! It seems strange to have such nice houses in suburbia... in a desert.

The rest of the day was spent trying to find a male-male 1/8th inch mini-plug cable. Between Radio Shack wanting $15 for a $2 cable and stores having no clue what I was asking for, I finally found what I was looking for after going to two Radio Shacks, Target, Office Depot, Electronics World (which is more like H.H.Greggs), Home Depot, Family Dollar, and in the end... Walmart had what I was looking for, and it only cost me $4!

Shoe Crack

E sure knows how to pick 'em. From the pool area, I noticed there are only 14 units in the entire complex that have a view of the pool. Hers is one of them. And location! We're like 5 minutes from anything you'd ever want, and if you want more, just 15 minutes from the same stores duplicated a little further away.

Cool stores. Like, Vegas auto plaza, like a farmer's market, but for mechanics. And a discount liquor store that is like Walmart for booze. $5 for a Shiraz from Aussi? Doesn't it cost more to ship that over here? Both of those are just around the corner, on the same block, and also on the same block... SHOES!

I don't dare enter. Not without reinforcements. Not without a job first. Then again... maybe just one shoe...

Maybe they need a website?

Goodbye, BBC

You were never unbiased. But you were unbiased in your bias, and I respected that, ya know? But then you started giving inches to your "senior" staff whereby they proceeded to sound like morons talking at great length about topics they had no clue about about. Front page news is no place for some old guy to ponder about if he should use Twitter or not. Bill Thompson, you're not the only one, but I'm singling you out, because you had the gall to - incorrectly - go public saying I was wrong. Yeah, I'm talking about the BBC Radio 4 interview I did on "Smart Tags" and I casually mentioned that RFID tags existed that were just a bit bigger than a grain of (cooked) rice. You went out of your way to say that was "wildly inaccurate" and that the smallest RFID tags at the time were measured in inches. What you failed to understand (besides a basic understanding of how RFID tags work and the privacy issues associated with them) is that I was holding one such tag in my hand during the interview as I said it!

But I overlooked that, because it was obvious you were more interested in people seeing the photo of you with your garish-colored scarf than actually knowing what you were talking about. But then, others followed your lead, and the BBC started putting your opinion pieces scattered throughout the site, and in order to boost views, there were often disguised as actual news events.

Still, I overlooked this, it was easy to, you guys weren't that clever about it. You might have changed the headlines, but your authors were still too egotistical and required their photos next to the headlines.

Then I had to endure the painful process of watching the BBC sell itself out. First to RealPlayer, for making everyone who wanted to watch video news install their outdated crappy player, then to Hugot, pasting their watch ad on every page you could, with all the finesse of a cow in a chinese restaurant. Wait, scratch that, bull in a china shop. Still, I overlooked it. In fact, I installed an ad blocker so I wouldn't have to be embarrassed by your ineptness at selling out. All the while, I am still pushing others toward the BBC over local American news outlets.

But now, you've gone too far. What with Google ads at bottom and banner ads on top and on the side, well, you make CNN look like legitimate news!

I am so sad to say goodbye to you. For years, I championed your site and encouraged everyone to get their news from you because you were ad-free. But now, you're just like all the other greedy money-worshiping so-called news sites. You're tainted. I can't trust you; you've lost your journalistic integrity.

So farewell, and good luck with that.

As for me, well, 7 years of reading the world news hasn't done much for me. I think I'm going to read books instead.

Highs and Lows

What a day!

It started off well enough. I had stayed up late (2am) working on the site for Oren, and in my sleepiness, forgot to wear the sleep mask and earplugs, so why my roomie decided to do laundry at 7am, well, I got up too and finished the site. I made it into Oren's for the 3rd day in a row at 9am, but this time, I had a completed site for him. So, I get my car fixed. Yay, I felt empowered at getting repairs on my car with no money. I went home and cleaned the house for E. It's kinda scary how easy I fall into domestication mode.

Feeling good, and on the recommendation of another poker player, I went to Bally's for some afternoon poker. The game was quite soft, and I picked up $80 before the game broke up. Feeling like it was time for a celebration (new home, new mechanic, good game) I went to my favourite sushi place for an early dinner. $12 got me stuffed on the freshest fish I've had since I left, save that one joint in Seattle on the Amazon fiasco. Everyone was happy to see me again and it was good to be back. Felt like home; I missed the company and I missed the sushi. Well fed, I changed into evening wear and went to Mandalay. That game was crazy good. There was over $5,000 on the table.

I turned $300 into just over $500 in an hour and was well on my way to the $850 goal I had set for myself prior. The last hand I played, I was dealt the 4 of hearts and the 5 of hearts on the button. I know I haven't yet explained how to play the game, but bear with me, you'll get it. There were 5 other players in the hand with the $2 customary bet raised to $7... it would cost $7 to see the flop. Normally, 45 suited is not a hand you'd play, but with 5 other players and in last position (last to act on all betting rounds) it's a great hand. What you hope for is to hit your 45 with someone else having a big pocket pair, like Kings. I call the $7 with just the lady to my left to act. She raised to $21. Now I already had her pegged; s. She had a big pair. Surprisingly, everyone called, and if I called the $14 raise, the action would stop. Against an opponent you know will give you action if you hit, this is the perfect place to play 45 suited (if there are 4 or more players). If you don't hit the flop, you fold, if you do, well, that's gravy. Most of the time you'll fold, but that one time you hit you make it all back plus more.

The flop comes 458. I've got two pair. She bets out $80. I *know* she's got a big pocket pair. How do I know? Because I watched her play. I watch everyone play when I'm not playing. Everyone folds. She has about the same amount of chips as I do. Now truth be told, I want her to fold, I want to win the pot right there, but if she does call, she's a huge underdog... I'm an 75% favourite to win.

Now, people say poker is gambling, but let me explain once and for all why I don't consider it so.

I'll illustrate with a simple game. Let's say you and I play a game where we each bet $100 and roll just one die. If a 1 comes up, you win. If a 2, 3, or 4 comes up, I win, and if a 5 or 6 comes up, we just roll it again until one of us wins. Hopefully, it is clear that this is not a game you should be playing! You're giving 50-50 odds (we each bet $100) but you are only getting 25-75 odds. Sure, you might win once in a while (1 in 4 games, to be precise) but I'll win most of the the time (3 out of every 4 games). Got it? The key here is in the long run. You might get lucky and win 4 times in row, but that's really unlikely (0.25 x 0.25 x 0.25 x 0.25 = like, 3%), and if you keep playing that game with me, you'll go broke and I'll take all your money.

Now as a poker player, I only put myself in those kinds of situations. If I'm not at least a 75% favourite to win, I'm not betting. Yes, in poker, if you know what you're doing, you can do just that, and I do, and that's why I don't consider it gambling.

But back to the game. I'm a 75% favourite to win, and I'm already winning, so I just want to take the pot now... it's $200, not a bad hand. So I overbet the pot to try to get her to fold. I bet $550 - all I have left. She calls and groans loudly when I show her my two pair after she shows me a pair of queens. It was a loose call, a skilled player would have put me on trips, two pair, or a straight and folded.

The next card (the turn) is a 10 of clubs. Now I'm an 80% favourite to win... she can only win if a Queen, Ten, or 8 comes (because then she too would have two pair... higher than my two pair). At best, there are 2 queens left, 3 eights left, and 3 tens left. That's 8 cards of the remaining 45 cards left. 8/45 = 0.2 or 20% at best. That means 80% of the time she'll lose.

By now you can probably guess that the final card was a ten, and she got lucky and took all my money.

Now here's the thing. If I had $2,000 and this happened, I'd rebuy, congratulate her on a hand well played and encourage her to keep doing that - because I want her to do that because I'll win most of the time.

But I don't have $2,000, I only had $300, enough for 1 game (the buyin for the minimum game is $300). So I'm out. I'm not out because I was gambling, I'm out because I didn't have enough money to sustain early bad luck losses like that.

Yeah, I gambled in the sense that I wouldn't need $2,000, but again, with a bankroll, it's not a gamble. 4 nights out of 5, I'd have walked away with her $500, and 1 night out of 5, I'd go home a $300 loser. That would - if I had enough to keep playing - mean I'd make $2,000 and lose $300 for a net gain of $1,700. That's why it's not gambling. If you understand the game and players to only put yourself in >75% chances of wining, you'll be a winner in the long run.

But you have to have the bankroll. I didn't have a bankroll. It cost too much to drive out here and get one month's rent; I only had one shot... I rolled the die, and it came up a 1. That doesn't mean I'm a loser, it doesn't mean I'm a bad player, it just means she got lucky.

It also means I can't play anymore, which now that I'm out here really stings. Losing money used to hurt. It didn't hurt this time because I understood the math, but being out the game, well, they don't have a pill can make that stomach ache go away.

The Barter System

http://orenishi.prettygetter.tv

(I changed the URL on the 1/100 chance Oren is slimy and tried to copy the site before he did the repairs.)

Wot u think? Not bad, for a sum total of 10 minutes of interaction time, eh? (Told you he was high-energy!)

So the deal is, I drop the car off on Monday am, rollerblade home, he fixes it, hopefully same day, and I have wheels again. I also left the door open for doing more web work for more repairs.

It's official, Clio has a mechanic. :)

Now Clio needs a desk, my back is KILLING me!

Car Pay Diem

$600. That's the total estimate to get the Stratosphere back in working condition. She's intermittently overheating and oozing ounces of coolant in the process. A desert is not the place to have an overheating car; I need to get it fixed.

Oren was pretty cool about the whole thing. I just had a feeling about the place as I drove by. Call it female intuition, or a sign, but I knew this was the place to go. He was high energy, not something you often see in mechanics, and it was obvious he loved running his own shop.

"I don't have $600," I replied, my car still 6 feet in the air.

I want to crawl into a hole as he tells me about "diagnostic fees." He thinks I'm trying to stiff him, or just shopping around for a free diagnostic. Reasonable, given this town. I assure him that I'm sincere about getting the car fixed, I just literally don't have $600. He already knew I just drove across the country, so he pauses at this, and takes me for my word.

As he's typing up the diagnostic report, he asks, "How did you come by my shop?" I told him I follow my intuition, and as I drove by, it made his store shine and that's why I went there. (Hey, it's Vegas, where else is one so justified in following their intuition?) He pauses at this again. I mention that I knew I was in the right place when I saw he was left handed too. (Lefties watch out for each other!) I continued, "After driving by, I looked you up online, got your number, and voila."

"What did you think of the site?"

It's pretty slick, but has some glaring HCI issues. "It's very classy, but doesn't have your hours listed anywhere on it." I didn't tell him about the other errors.

"Oh, now that I'm where I am in the Google ranking, I don't dare change it."

An opportunity?

"But you can edit your page to add your hours; that won't affect your ranking. Trust me," I added, "I used to design and build websites back East."

We talk a bit more about websites, and he tells me that he got his present website by bartering with a woman for repairs who like me, didn't have the money. There it is... that's the intuition seeing the opportunity before I was aware of it. Hallelujah!

So... now I go home and build a few websites (so it looks like he is multiple stores) and hopefully tomorrow he'll look at it all and go, "Wow! That's great! Bring in your car and let's get it fixed!"

(fingers crossed)