While Thailand is normally a very peaceful place, they had a bombing over New Years. I had actually flown into the country earlier that afternoon. We went to dinner that night, and then a group of us was planning on going to Central World for the ball dropping since it was only two buildings down from our hotel. Luckily we went back to the hotel first, and our taxi got searched for bombs. We asked them what was going on, and they told us that there was some bombings earlier in the day, and that all New Years celebrations were cancelled. So, we ended up going someplace else instead. When midnight struck, two bombs went off in Central World. Thankfully we were not there.

Too much excitment for me.

After 31 hours, I have arrived in Dunedin, NZ!

New Zealand is by far the prettiest place I have ever been. The land formations created from volcanoes are beautiful and the sunlight is a much whiter light than anything I have seen in the US. This is due to a hole in the ozone above New Zealand. So while you get burned rather quickly, it does make for great star viewing.

Hopefully I’ll get a few shots of Mt. Doom and maybe a few hobbits while I’m here.

Just a tip for future travelers to NZ. The first time you cross a street, look right….then left. Large buses and other cars drive on the left side of the street.

A common complaint about making New Year resolutions is: why should a person wait until the new year to make a change in their life. And while I agree w/ that in theory, in reality, there is a very powerful psychological tool about starting something new. A person is more likely to follow through w/ their resolutions if they really believe that something new has started. Otherwise, they get into the trap of saying….well, I’ll start that diet tomorrow. By having a date, they do not have that out.

A new year is a good point to take stock in your life decided what is working, and what is not. Setting up new behaviors, and bettering yourself as a person.

So what are my resolutions for the year?

1.) Blog minimum once a week (you can hold me accountable for that one)
2.) Stay away from fried food
3.) Read 2 books a month (would be more, but school and writing take a lot of time)
4.) Work on reading people’s strengths & weaknesses quicker
5.) Do more public speaking

Goals are the single most important driving factor towards success. If there is not a destination in mind, how can you figure out where you are going? Furthermore, in setting these goals they should be made measurable stretch goals. How will you know your potential if your goals are easily attainable. It is not what a goal is that matters, it is what a goal does.

So what about my life goals:

1.) Create a fortune 500 company
2.) Write a best seller
3.) Million dollar net worth by age 32
4.) Have a happy family (yes, I know it’s neither measurable nor stretch, but important nonetheless)
5.) Travel Africa
6.) Speak in front of 5,000 people
7.) Own a house on Lake Austin
8.) Speak a second language
9.) Have a separate Austin home for my parents to live in whenever they want to visit
10.) Retire by 55, and own the Lions

I just got back from vacation in Cozumel. The vacation was much needed and I feel 100x better. A full tank is going to be needed as this is going to be a very hectic month.

One of the things I noticed is how slow life moves there. With the exception of the taxi cab drivers, people were content in just hanging out staring at the ocean.

An interesting fact I learned was that up to a few years ago, the Mayan people were isolated and had no concept of money. They just had to worry about finding their next meal. They also had the lowest rate of heart disease in the country. Now, they are starting to be concerned with things such as buying cars and luxury items. They have already started seeing a rise in heart disease.

Sorry, for the limited updates on the blog and genetic-library. Between trips to Europe, OLS paper/presentation, high IBM workload, putting TicketShuffle.com back up, looking at real-estate investments, and other ventures, it has been a busy summer. Let’s not get into the fall w/ Business school starting up.

After OLS, I am hoping to integrated plugsched into the genetic-library, and start on the workload fingerprinting. Doing workload fingerprinting will enable reintroducing good genes from previous workloads back into the gene-pool. It should hopefully speed up the convergence on optimal solutions quicker.

Rebasing the genetic-lib to 2.6.12 is also high on the priority list. I did a quick update of the AS component, but I am not seeing the same type of results that I did on 2.6.11. I’m wondering if a performance counter is not getting updated appropriately. That usually breaks the genetic-lib quickly.

I arrived in Germany yesterday and got my first experience of actually driving on the autobahn. I am regretting not getting a faster car.

Things that impress me in Germany:

- The bier
- The German’s ability to recognize Moilanen is a Finnish name
- The fast cars
- Their English speaking proficiency
- The cleaniness of everything

Update: I have maxed out my car at 205 km/h (127 mph). That was with it floored and going down hill (maybe even a tail wind). I am still kicking myself for not upgrading. At least I am able to drive w/o white knuckles at about 170-180 km/h (105-112 mph).

Now that I am in Spain, and having to work with a number of second-language English speakers, I have found that I speak way too quickly. Or rather they have told me so. So in an effort to actually communicate, I am making a conscientious effort to speak very slow. Painfully slow. While the people I work with are very good English speakers, their glazed eyes give away when I start talking fast again.

I have also found that I must limit my vocabulary considerably and I can not use any of my clever play-on-words (who said I did this to begin with). Now without my insatiable wit, I feel reduced to a person who can’t figure out what they want to say, nor can use anything but single-syllable words. I feel dumb when I speak.

I just arrived in Spain for two weeks of work. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to see something besides the inside of a computer lab.

One of the things I enjoy most about visiting a country for the first time is seeing all the different ways something can be done, and trying to figure out what something is supposed to do. It’s also a little humbling when it takes you 5 minute to figure out how to turn on the lights.

Notes so far:

I’m glad I’m not claustrophobic.

Taxi cab drivers know the words to American songs I’ve never heard before.

Even the “Second nicest hotel in Barcelona” can have paper-thin walls.

Tipping 20% is a HUGE deal.

A whole hotel can share one DSL connection.

I talk too fast.

Three cars can fit across two lanes.

A cup of coffee is really a shot of espresso.

America could be more environmentally friendly.

Spain is beautiful.

While it is a lot easier to put someone on tilt in no-limit, it’s much harder to do so in a limit game just because most hands are not as large. However, there are still ways I’ve found to do so. My favorite one works on most people, but it is difficult to pull off because it requires a couple hands, and the right situation (note: I’ve found this to work on no-limit as well).

It is a two hand process:

1.) Make a spectacle of bad behavior in a hand.

The first step is to bluff, get a fold, and then show your hand. It has to be in the correct situation though. First you have to bluff out someone in a limit game, which is not always easy, but it can be done. Now comes the part of showing your hand, but two requirements have to be met before you show your hand.

a.) The player has to think about it for a bit before throwing it away. This ensure that they do have something, and you’ll know that they’re most likely throwing away the winning hand. Also, you want them thinking about your play, and what you have given how you’ve played the hand. You want this to be an emotional decision for them. Showing a garbage hand will not have the same effect on a person if they have garbage as well. It also helps if the table makes a big deal of it as well. This will make them want to get revenge for their damaged ego.

b.) It has to be right for your table image. If you are getting large-size pots to begin with and people are folding because they’re scared of you, then there is no reason to give them doubt that you don’t have the best hand. Let them keep folding winning hands, and let you keep getting nice-sized pots. If most of the pots are rather small, you might want to encourage people to stay in pots with you to make them larger. In other words, it’s not worth putting one person on tilt if it will ruin your chances of getting money from the rest of the table.

Now, unless they are seasoned veterans, they are going to want to make sure that you don’t pull that on them again. Hopefully their pride is damaged as well. Pride is a huge factor in people going on tilt.

2.) Quickly beat them again.

While they are still emotional over their last fold, a second beat is needed. This needs to be a hand that looks exactly the same as before. You need to bet exactly the same, and similar cards need to be shown. It needs to look like you are making the same type of claim just as you claimed in hand 1. For example, if two queens were up in hand 1, and you were bluffing that you had the 3rd queen, then in hand 2, you should have what would be comparable to the third queen. You want them thinking that they have you pegged on a bluff only to find out that they misread you again. This is a very good way of trapping someone in no-limit as well.

Now they should be on an emotional roller coaster. They’ll be questioning their ability to read players, and will feel totally outplayed. I’ve only seen a couple players that didn’t go on tilt to some degree and most players will have self-destructed by now. I know I personally had this done on me and watched myself blowup just a few hands later.