Mind Games

Nice win.

OK -- there are way too many pictures to post in a bunch.

So I'll post a few at a time.
Be sure to follow the links. Hopefully they'll be interesting...

Mrs Vorpal in shadow. Our ship in behind with Vancouver Harbour as backdrop:

Yours Truly looking nautical -- or west. Or something.
Still haven't left the harbour...

Finally underway -- The bridge in the background has an interesting history:

I was 5 years old when the bridge collapsed, but I remember seeing it from the shore. My Dad drove 40 miles (we didn't have km back then) to have a look.

Ok, finally about to actually leave Vancouver Harbour.
Oddly enough, the bridge in the foreground has an interesting history:

Well that's it for today.
I'll post a few more each day until we're back home...

Peace,
VS

Keep the pictures coming.
The history via the links is very informative. I know it takes extra time to include these but please don't stop as I find the history as fascinating as the pictures.
Thanks

Well that is truly weird.
I posted several more yesterday, but they're not here now.
I wonder if there is a size limit per post.

Oh well, I'll just post a few at a time then.

It is rather difficult to take picture of the entire ship you're standing on. The ship shown is the Norwegian Pearl ours is the Norwegian Sun

At 73,000 gross registered tonnage, the Norwegian Sun is small as cruise ships go. The Pearl pictured is 95,000 grt. The largest cruise ship (currently) is Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas at 225,000 grt is just over triple the size. For comparison the largest ship ever built is only slightly larger. RMS Titanic was "only" 46,000 grt.

Behind Pearl the wooded Peninsula is the University of British Columbia where I spend the first half of the '70s getting educated in many things -- some academic even.

Looming on the eastern horizon you can see the peak of Mt Baker, the northernmost of the Cascade volcano chain.[1] Mt Baker is also one of the snowiest places on earth, too apparently. It is quite amazing the things you find out when posting a few pics. Ok one pic, but it's getting late...

The accommodations were small -- as could be expected -- but were clean and well furnished. The bed was nice and comfy.

There was even a small balcony.

That came equipped with Mrs Vorpal.

More tomorrow -- and hopefully these ones today.
VS

[1] Or so I thought until I looked up the link. Goes to show that even a UBC geology grad can sometimes (ok, often) get things wrong ♠_cry:

After 4 days aboard we arrived at San Diego, California. I had wanted to post a more colourful link, but everything else I could put my hands on was my hype than help. That seems so common in the internet lately -- far more promotion than information.

San Diego had two truly interesting sites (for me at least) there is a host of other things to see and do.
The first cool place was the USS Midway
There is really no way to get a sense of size in a photograph.
This picture is looking down on the flight deck from the bridge.

This is what it is like below decks.

The other truly neat place is the San Diego Zoo.
The page takes a lot of time to load, and is a good example of the triumph of promotion over information I spoke of.

There are far better photos of the animals on that site, but of the ones we took, here are a few of my favourites.

Tomorrow, Mexico

Until then,
VS

We took the commuter train from San Diego to the Mexico border, and walked across.
Clearing customs was rather interesting. There is a complex series of questions, they issue a visa and then you press a button to light a lamp. If the lamp is green, you go through. otherwise you get searched. I've no idea what the other colour is, since for us both it was green.

We took a cab from the border to our hotel.
US$ 5.00.
From there we were going to walk to the touristy area, so we checked in, and started walking.
We got as far as a restaurant, when a sudden downpour caused us to decide on lunch.

Not knowing whether such downpours were common, we took a cab to the touristy area.
US $5.00

We were constantly accosted by people trying to get us to have our picture taken or to sell us stuff. Here is Mrs Vorpal with some bimbo.

And myself with another bimbo

Due to the extreme cost of pharmaceuticals in the US, drugstores, doctors and dentists in the border towns have no lack of customers or patients.

Even so, no matter how economico this dentista might be, I'll get my teeth checked elsewhere, thanks...

We had bales of fun poking around in the stores. The place was deserted. It turns out that the downpour was a very rare event, and drove out most (almost all) of the touristas except for this loco Canuck and his lady.

So we had a few drinks, and some tortilla chips -- so many of each in fact that we decided to skip dinner.

Along the way, we made friends with Delores,

And while having a drink at her bar we were serenaded by two elderly minstrels,

who sang us "Cielito Lindo"

They did a lovely job on their beat-up old guitars. They seemed well-enough pleased with our tip -- $US 5.00 -- that they sang a couple more. Besides there were no other touristas within a block or two.

We hung out until dark and took a cab back to the hotel.
$US 5.00

We got peckish around 22:30, so headed down to catch the hotel cafe before it closed.
We ordered a likely sounding appetizer or two from the menu, and back came the water with this:

I seem to have a knack for ordering weird food. These were stuffed mushrooms. They tasted mighty fine, but looked for all the world like dead bugs.

Worn out, we went to bed, and next day we took a cab back to the border.
$US 5.50 wtf?
We gave him 6 anyway, so all is good.

We spent about an hour and a half in the walk-across queue for US Customs going back, and had a great time talking to a lady from California who runs a genetics lab in Mexico because they can't do that type of research in the US.

Can you make this stuff up?

Did I mention ordering weird food?
This was a few nights previous in San Diego, but after a few drinks we went to a bar for a bite. On the menu they had "Curried Cauliflower". Well that sounded interesting, and so I ordered it, expecting some steamed cauliflower in a curry sauce.

No.

An whole steamed cauliflower covered in a strong masala curry and peanuts of all things. It was served with the knife driven to the hilt into the top of it.

I have a rule I steadfastly follow: "Never eat anything bigger than your head"
This came close...
I rather felt like a zombie eating a brain.

I went to their website afterward, to gather evidence that I was not actually suffering some weird 70's flashback -- but the spot on the menu where the curried cauliflower had been was totally blank on the on-line menu.

I wonder if they have special menus that they bring out for likely-looking types just to have a laugh at them.

I ate nearly all of it, and oddly, could not get any of the other 3 to help out.

Without the picture, I might by now believe that it was a weird '70s flashback.

Tomorrow -- Death Valley.
VS

Well, once again, I'm wrong.
We left San Diego on the 7th of October, but did not get to Death Valley until the 8th.

So today, we see a bit of the terrain in Central California

Starkly beautiful, terribly dry, and even in October quite warm -- daytime temperatures typically mid 30s.

I mentioned the downpour in Mexico.
Apparently, they had a similar one all through California.
This left lakes in the middle of the desert. Apparently when this happens in the spring, the whole desert blooms. One can only imagine.

We spent the night in a little off-the-beaten-track motel in a little town with no apparent reason for being there.

After we got settled, Mrs Vorpal and I drove out into the desert where it was as dark as we could find. Nowhere there are you ever really far enough away from "civilization" to truly see the sky at night.

But we did the best we could, and lay on our backs on warm sand and looked up at the sky (yeah right) for an hour or two, then called it a night.

tomorrow Death Valley

***BTW if you didn't know, you can right-click on the pix and choose "view image" to open them in a new windows and see them full size.

Looking at those photos and geting a feeling i really want to make a trip also, looks really nice over there but not so sure about that (brain) just the look at it makes me feel bad

Yeah, the brain was something unusual.
As for coming to North America for a trip, be sure to come to Vancouver!

But in truth, everywhere on the planet has its own attractions.

Here's a panorama from the central part of Death Valley looking toward the west. The lowest part is east of us.

The panorama's will look better if they were opened outside the browser -- they look rather puny all squished up.

Death Valley is start, hot and dry, with almost no visible vegetation -- not even cactus. There are exceptions, such as this oasis at Furnace Creek.

We did not make it to the lowest spot in the valley, since park service had closed the road due to the rains. After a rainfall, they have to inspect all the roads for washouts. We saw a few even on the main roads. It seems really weird to see 2m culverts under the roads in one of the driest places on earth.

Our last stop in Death Valley was Zabriskie Point. Technically it is on the range on the east side of the valley proper. Some of the strangest landforms I've ever encountered are here.

Zabriskie point is the name of a movie that came out when I was in high school.

There was much fuss about the film at the time, but I still haven't seen it.
Can't find it anywhere. Not that I've looked much lately.

Tomorrow -- Las Vegas

Vegas is an interesting town.
Everything is there for one reason -- to get your money.

Our Hotel room cost a mere $22 per night -- Except for Friday and Saturday, when it was $109.

The room was OK -- we didn't spend a lot of time in it.

Our friends suggested we take in the "Fremont Street" Experience. They've covered over a section of the street, and put a zip line overhead. It looked like fun, but it would have been 40 bucks each to ride it.

Vegas is easy to get around in.
There are a couple of different bus systems -- one costs a mere 8 bucks to ride all day.
It goes up and down the strip frequently, so nothing is very far from you.

We only saw one show -- We had intended on one stage show, and one performer, but none of the performers on during our stay really interested us.

We saw Cirque du Soleil's "Love" which was an acrobatic show done to Beatles music.
The best description I can think of is "A 3D Ballet"

This last picture for today is my favourite of all the Vegas street shots.
It was taken from the top floor of the shuttle bus "The Deuce", and I just like the reflections .

Tomorrow, the Mob Museum...

Since my last post, a lot has changed.
My job is a lot tougher, my spare time is a lot shorter, and my health has declined somewhat.

But in the past month, I've gone back to playing a half hour to an hour each day for relaxation.
I get home from work about 02:00 Europe time, so not a lot of action anywhere -- especially in 5-Card Draw, so I've added FL $0.02/$0.04 O8 to my daily grind. Not going to get rich quick, but it is good to learn which hands win and which hands typically don't.

Speaking of "which hands win" here's a rare double cap hand from this morning...

I didn't realize that after my last Vegas post I had promised some pix of the Mob Museum.
There is quite a story there...

Great thanks for your awaiting post. GL everywhere!

I've actually made a cauliflower dish like that before, it was basically baked after being rubbed in a curry paste. I thought it was tasty, but despite liking my veg al dente, I couldn't get it soft enough before burning the outside.

Nice pics though.

Originally posted by irregularity
I've actually made a cauliflower dish like that before, it was basically baked after being rubbed in a curry paste. I thought it was tasty, but despite liking my veg al dente, I couldn't get it soft enough before burning the outside.

I was a bit dismayed when I saw it, but fortunately, I did not disobey the first rule of eating:

I think that this one was steamed -- perhaps under pressure, and the texture was near perfect all the way through (or at least as far as I got).

Originally posted by irregularity
Nice pics though.

Thanks!

Here is one from the Mob Museum...

The wall in the photo is the backdrop for the St Valentine's Day Massacre. The "Canadian Businessman" mentioned in the Wikipedia article had a bar in Vancouver that I used to frequent when I was at UBC in the '70s -- although he may not have owned it then.

He had the wall installed in a trailer, and toured the province with it, charging a small fee to go in, see the wall and watch a short film of the event.

What is rather stunning about the whole thing, though is that on reading the plaque at the Mob Museum, we discovered that the "Canadian Businessman" is (or rather was) my wife's great uncle.

Much was made of the Kennedy Assassinations in the Museum. First, speculation about John's dalliance with Marilyn Monroe as a motive, and Bobby's determination as Attorney General to eradicate the Mob.

If you ever get to Vegas, the Mob Museum is well worth the trip. It is on a bus route, and is inexpensive (unlike almost everything else to see in Vegas). Allow enough time though -- we only took an afternoon, and ended up skipping over a lot of it.

Cheers,
VS

Hope your health issues are not very serious.

Good to see you around!

Thanks, Gary -- no not serious. I think I'm just sick of work ♠_cry:

It has been a pretty good month.
I checked my 5-Card Draw graph today for the first time in a long time, and discovered that I've hit couple of milestones.
 Surpassed previous peak $ winnings (still 9 BB to go). This is largely due to a few FL $1/$2 tables showing up.
 Greater than 300K hands of 5-Card Draw

The 5-Card Draw Graph...

I decided to play some NLHE too, and jumped in at NL 50.
Dropped 3 BI the first night, and slowly gaining it back.

Remember Vorpal "Poker is like acne -- you must pick your spots carefully"

Peace,
VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Thanks, Gary -- not not serious. I think I'm just sick of work ♠_cry:

I hope this was just a typo, not an intentional double negative...

In any case, it's great to hear from you again, Vorpal!

That's an impressive 5CD graph, but what happened during that big drop near the middle?

Also, I'm a bit surprised to see that you're playing NL50 now, did you play this limit before? I believe you were mostly playing 5CD back when I was around.

Thanks for the updates, all the best!

Yeah, just a typo -- it should have been, "no, not serious"
The big drop in the middle was a really bad stretch of FL $1/$2 -- I got loads of good hands -- they just all got beaten.
I got back to about 2/3 my original stack still on FL $1/$2, but then those tables just dried up. I rarely see them any more.

5-Card Draw is pretty easy if you just play the odds. At higher stakes though, you have to start playing the players, and you have to know them to do that.

I was playing NL 30 on a different site -- the one owned by the provincial government's lottery commission, so I thought I'd give it a try on PokerStars. I "just playing the odds", since I don't know any of the players. PStars players are WAY tighter in general.

Peace,
VS

5-Card Draw
I set my all-time high score in BB for 5-Card Draw -- by 7 BB.
You can barely tell from the graph, but it's still nice.

Mind you, every other time I hit an all-time high there is a downswing to follow.
But of course, if there's no downswing, there is still higher to go.

hmmmm,
VS

5-Card Draw
I had a losing session yesterday, but only slightly, so hasn't affected things much.

NL 2-7 Single Draw
I've been playing this as a cash game over the last little while.
It doesn't run very often at low stakes, and it is quite swingy, but a heap of fun.

I had been playing the 2-7 Progressive KO tournaments, and had played quite a few before I adjusted to the format.
Still haven't cashed, but I've covered the entire BI in bounties a few times.

The trick in KOs appears to be "Don't try to win it too early -- try to hang on until you can pick off short stacks"

Peace,
VS