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Confused and depressed, but winning...
Nov. 3rd, 2005 10:01 pmGalina called me at the store this morning, having suddenly lit a fire under herself with regard to the Houston trip, and asked me how far down the road I thought she could get by this evening if she left Pagosa around 2 pm. I told her, which kicked off a fairly intense day of running around in Headless Chicken™ mode, to the bank, to the tire repair shop, to the other bank, home, and back to the store to take care of the end of the day.
This, while work was flowing into the mailbox, albeit not fast enough.
Dinner required no cooking: chopped romaine salad, tomato, avocado, Greek olives, dill pickle, cheese, and a couple of bottles of Pilsner Urquell. Then I sat down and played a little online poker, ending the evening just about $2.00 ahead, which is not awfully bad, considering I played mostly $0.10/$0.20 limit hold'em.
Obviously, I don't play poker to make a living. What I am trying to do in playing the game is keep my mind sharp and my approach disciplined. I tried doing this by playing with "play money" (most sites will let you play purely for fun, with imaginary cash), but the discipline suffers when there's a little voice in your ear saying, "Go on! Call the so-and-so! You're not risking anything!"
Thinking about it, it would seem you'd be giving the "discipline" area of your brain a sterner workout if you minded your virtual chips with as much attention as your the ones backed with real gelt, but it's too easy for thoughts along the lines of "If you fold now, you'll never see whether..." to take the upper hand when it really doesn't cost you anything to find out whatever it is you're wondering about. Too, I think it's a little like developing a dieting regimen where you try to treat drinking water as any other calorie-containing substance; you can do so, but it makes little sense.
For some reason, this meshes with something I read in the WSJ about 2 weeks ago (it seems) and mentioned in a post by LJ friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
candid regarding how high-end hotels clip their clients by charging an additional fee for high-speed Internet access, while budget-priced hotels compete for customers by proclaiming "Free high-speed Internet" as a major selling point.
The WSJ article actually focused on the growing resistance out there to paid Internet access, especially among people who frequent high-end hotels. One counter to the prevailing tone of the article was a statement by some hotel manager who said that since not everyone uses the Internet, lodging prices in general would have to go up to cover free online access.
The argument bothered me when I read it, and today I realized why. The WSJ article mentioned a figure of 30% for guests who go online at such hotels, which sounds plausible. Surely the percentage of guests who use, say, a hotel's swimming pool is a much less than that, no? (I'd guess 5%-10%.) And it's a good bet that less than 30% go to the exercise room. Using the manager's logic, you'd expect there to be an extra charge on the room bill if you went swimming or exercised, no?
However, I cannot recall the last time I was, say, at an ATA conference (which always seems to take place in the most expensive hotel in a given downtown area) where the pool and exercise room were extras. Apparently, the hotels hope to keep Internet access in the same category as phone calls, which - as far as I can see - represent nothing but pure profit for the house.
Cheers...
This, while work was flowing into the mailbox, albeit not fast enough.
Dinner required no cooking: chopped romaine salad, tomato, avocado, Greek olives, dill pickle, cheese, and a couple of bottles of Pilsner Urquell. Then I sat down and played a little online poker, ending the evening just about $2.00 ahead, which is not awfully bad, considering I played mostly $0.10/$0.20 limit hold'em.
Obviously, I don't play poker to make a living. What I am trying to do in playing the game is keep my mind sharp and my approach disciplined. I tried doing this by playing with "play money" (most sites will let you play purely for fun, with imaginary cash), but the discipline suffers when there's a little voice in your ear saying, "Go on! Call the so-and-so! You're not risking anything!"
Thinking about it, it would seem you'd be giving the "discipline" area of your brain a sterner workout if you minded your virtual chips with as much attention as your the ones backed with real gelt, but it's too easy for thoughts along the lines of "If you fold now, you'll never see whether..." to take the upper hand when it really doesn't cost you anything to find out whatever it is you're wondering about. Too, I think it's a little like developing a dieting regimen where you try to treat drinking water as any other calorie-containing substance; you can do so, but it makes little sense.
For some reason, this meshes with something I read in the WSJ about 2 weeks ago (it seems) and mentioned in a post by LJ friend
candid regarding how high-end hotels clip their clients by charging an additional fee for high-speed Internet access, while budget-priced hotels compete for customers by proclaiming "Free high-speed Internet" as a major selling point. The WSJ article actually focused on the growing resistance out there to paid Internet access, especially among people who frequent high-end hotels. One counter to the prevailing tone of the article was a statement by some hotel manager who said that since not everyone uses the Internet, lodging prices in general would have to go up to cover free online access.
The argument bothered me when I read it, and today I realized why. The WSJ article mentioned a figure of 30% for guests who go online at such hotels, which sounds plausible. Surely the percentage of guests who use, say, a hotel's swimming pool is a much less than that, no? (I'd guess 5%-10%.) And it's a good bet that less than 30% go to the exercise room. Using the manager's logic, you'd expect there to be an extra charge on the room bill if you went swimming or exercised, no?
However, I cannot recall the last time I was, say, at an ATA conference (which always seems to take place in the most expensive hotel in a given downtown area) where the pool and exercise room were extras. Apparently, the hotels hope to keep Internet access in the same category as phone calls, which - as far as I can see - represent nothing but pure profit for the house.
Cheers...
