Carl Sagan Quotes

Cross-posted from my Facebook profile, I thought I'd post my favourite Carl Sagan quotes.

"For thousands of years humans were oppressed - as some of us still are - by the notion that the universe is a marionette whose strings are pulled by a god or gods, unseen and inscrutable."

"You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe."

"Anything you don't understand you attribute to God. God for you is where you sweep away all the mysteries of the world, all the challenges to our intelligence. You simply turn your mind off and say God did it."

"Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy."

"The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the supression of ideas."

"The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better, it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look Death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides."

The Blog is Back!

Ok, I'm back. Exams are over, I'm still mulling over whether I'll go back to school in January, but I'm leaning towards no. So I'm thinking I'll do a blog entry or two most days.

I look forward to sharing with anybody who stumbles upon this page my thoughts and feelings on the blog's namesake topics as well as a couple others once in a while.

Thanks for reading.

pwning teh sho @nl100

Good. I'm back to running the show at the Crypto NL100 tables. August was so gee I felt like quitting, and my goal of 20k for the year was going up in smoke. Well...things have turned around pretty good.

August: +$157.92

YUCK. What a waste of the last month of the summer. So many awful leaks.

September: +$2,922.52

That's more like it. The month ended poorly though, which didn't bode well for October, but...

October: +$2,709.41

Booya. A return to glory, two months of pretty much solid poker. Had a little bit of a bump a couple weeks ago where I donked off $300 in an hour, but after that it's been primarily smooth sailing. After a solid start to November today (+$325), I'm feeling really good about the way I'm playing. The wins today pretty much put me over the 20k mark for the year and I still have two months left! 25k is looking very attainable right now. I think that would be quite the accomplishment.

Good times on the poker front.

Midterms finally over...

Ok, so I got a C+ on my Thermo midterm, not too too bad, above the class average which I'm pretty pleased about. Hopefully it gets scaled up 10% or so.

Did my mechanics midterm a couple weeks ago, no mark yet. Thought I did ok. Probably around 70%. Okay, so far so...good I guess.

Extragalactic...holy shit...what the fata happened here. I'm supposed to be good at astrophysics! I most definitely failed, but by how much is the question. The prof scales it pretty good, so it really only matters how well you do in relation to the other 17 students. Hopefully I come out with a decent mark. I'd be pleased with a B- at this point. I really need some kind of A in this class...looks like it's going to have to be an A- the way the midterm went. That or I gotta tear the final, which I definitely could do.

Advanced Calculus....W...T....F.

Okay, I suck at this stuff anyway, but this test was awful. It was absolutely nothing like the practice test. Not even close. This test covered all the harder material that I don't grasp as well, whereas the practice test covered a lot of the material I know very well. Probably got about 30%. Oh well...just gotta pass the final and I'll be good. So easy to say...not so easy to do LOL.

So overall, my midterms went...pretty shitty. But don't they always? Last year my midterm marks were 78% (A- final mark), 60% (B), 51% (F), 62% (B-), 42% (B-), 92% (A), 77% (B), 45% (C+).

So maybe things aren't so bad. Now I just have to get around to doing my labs instead of being lazy and ditching them. And not getting 40% on assignments would help, too.

Cosmos

"Is ours the lone voice for thousands of light years, or is there a kind of cosmic fugue, billions of voices singing the life music of the galaxy?"

Carl Sagan said those words 26 years ago, in the second episode of what was a 13 episode masterpiece known as "Cosmos". It was a PBS series in 1980 about the wonder that is the cosmos.

Carl Sagan is one of the greatest human beings of the 20th century and is a man to be admired for what he believed and what he accomplished. His endless pursuit of the truth and abhorrence for religion is a shining example for us all.

I recommend this television series to anyone with even a passing interest or curiosity in what lies beyond, and even to those that don't. From the shores of the cosmic ocean to heaven and hell to the edge of forever, Sagan's work is a masterpiece that stands the test of time.

All 13 episodes are available in their entirety to be streamed (high quality) off Google Video at no cost. Although of course, if you have the money, you should really buy the dvds yourself.

Here is a sample of just how (cheezily?) poetic Carl Sagan is throughout these pieces:

Who speaks for Earth?

"We who embody the local eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, we've begun, at last, to wonder about our origins, starstuff contemplating the stars, organized assemblages of ten billion billion billion atoms contemplating the evolution of atoms, tracing that long path by which it arrived that consciousness here on the planet earth and perhaps througout the cosmos. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves, but also to that cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring."

Success as a human...

What is to be considered success as a human being? Is success being rich? Is success being happy? Is true success both of these things at one time?

No.

My defintion of success is much broader (narrower?) than that.

A successful person is a person who is good and just, not because he was told to be or threatened to be, but because he is.

To me, that is the only true meaning of success as a person. Anybody who that definition does not describe is a failure as a human being.

Big Hit, Big Saves, and a Big Goal...

Calgary Flames hockey.

Picture that in your head, and that's what tonight's game was. Shitty offense, solid defense, a bad power play, a good PK, and world class goaltending. All resulting in a 1-0 victory.

Lots of chances by the Flames in this one, and halfway through the third Jarome finally buried one for his second of the year. But of course the highlight of this game was not any of Miikka's myriad amazing saves, nor Jarome's goal, it was Dion Phaneuf's COLLOSSAL hit on career AHLer Denis Hamel. Dion just about knocked him all the way back to Binghamton.

I know what you're wondering. "Evan, how the hell did you watch this game? You don't have satellite". No I don't, but I do have a computer and a broadband internet connection, which are the requirements for a new program out that lets you watch live tv on your computer for free. This program is called TVU. Right now the quality is not so great (for fast action like hockey, anyway) and the selection of channels is slim, but they have a dedicated hockey channel which shows whatever the best game on right then is. Tonight that happened to be the OTT/CGY game so I got to see just about the whole thing. How cool is that?

Anyways, good game, always nice to get the W. Five goals in four games, and we're 2-2. LOL. Only in Calgary.

Good: Miikka, Dion, Iggy, Hammer.

Bad: Robyn leaving the game for 15 mins in the second. Scared the living shit out of me. Glad he's okay.

Ugly: The PP is just gross.

Three Stars:

3. Ray Emery
2. Dion Phaneuf
1. Miikka Kiprusoff

Volunteering and Pascal's Wager

Ok, I realize the forthcoming posting is outside the scope of this blog, but I'd like to share my thoughts on it anyway.

What is Pascal's Wager? You could look it up, but I'll quickly summarize it here. Blaise Pascal posited that since believing in God results in either infinite reward or zero harm, and not believing results in either minimal reward or infinite loss, we must believe.

The main problem with the Wager is that belief for the sake of personal gain is not true belief. In order to reap the infinite rewards, you must not believe solely for the sake of those rewards, but for the sake of believing itself. Believing for personal gain is morally reprehensible, un-Christian and is deserving of eternal damnation.

This brings me to the issue of volunteering. In high school, there are always a number of kids who strive to pad their resume as much as possible by doing all the "volunteer" work they can. They want to get into a good school, preferrably on scholarship (read: free), and volunteering a lot will help them attain that goal.

Is this virtuous? Or commendable? I posit that it is neither.

Just like Pascal's Wager, volunteering for personal gain is nothing but a bastardization of the virtuous establishment. Volunteering is a wonderful thing. If I ever become really rich, I plan on giving lots of time and money to worthy causes. But when that volunteering is done for nothing but personal gain, it becomes (seemingly) morally ambiguous.

The truth is, you are still doing good. You are still helping out those poor/unfortunate/sick/whatever people. But you are doing so for the wrong reasons. So is it still worth doing? I say no.

The small virtuousness of the good done is dwarfed by the morally reprehensibleness of the devious underhanded deed completed solely for personal gain.

One thing in life that is rarely, if ever, worth sacrificing is one's morality. Doing a small good deed is not worth undercutting one's entire morality, which is exactly what volunteering for personal gain accomplishes.

University Burnout

(Reposted here from the off topic board on calpuck)

I think I'm getting sick of school for the first time in my life. I went to university right out of high school and went straight for two years. I took this summer off and have been back for a month and I hate it. I started out with six classes and am down to four. I am the laziest, least motivated student possible it seems. It seems like I need to be reenergized, reinvigorated, recharged, whatever.

I'm sitting here procrastinating, thinking about how in the hell I'm going to pass my classical mechanics midterm tomorrow. I just don't even want to deal with it. In years past I'd be at least doing something constructive right now, instead I'm on CP and 2+2 and RFD etc etc wasting time. Being at school, the only thing I can think of is going home for the day and watching some tv or playing some poker or playing baseball or going to subway or watching some hockey or having some beers or screwing around on the internet. I don't want to be at school, I don't want to do a stupid assignment. I don't want to write up a lab for ten hours. I just want to have fun, do fun stuff, be lazy.

What's wrong with me? Where's the motivated student who wanted to get his BSc in 8 semesters and move on right away to his MSc/PhD? Where's the student who dreamed of being an astronomer, finding answers to the universe's greatest questions? Is astrophysics even for me? I'm having all sorts of self doubt. I know if I apply myself I can do it. But I don't know that I can apply myself. I have gotten through two years of a degree in physics and astronomy without really applying myself, and my grades have been ok. Now all it takes is a little effort for the last two years to get myself into graduate school and I can't come up with it. Am I afraid that I'm not smart enough? Am I in denial?

I just want to sit at home and watch Jerry and cooking shows in the day, play some poker and have fun. I don't want or need a job (for now, anyway), I just want to do "nothing" (of importance).

I was sitting in the library today working on some other physics assignment thinking how much I'd rather be somewhere else when a buddy walked by. He asked how I was and I told him I felt like shit cause I didn't want to do the assignment and I just wanted to quit school. He recommended something I had never considered before. He said I should take a semester off and travel.

So here's (are) my question(s) for the oh so helpful and educated and worldy CP OT crowd. Is travelling a good idea for me, even if I'm not exactly into travelling? Where does one go? For how long? For how much money? With other people or by myself?

What the hell is wrong with me? I am really fighting myself. For the first time in my life I am doubting the direction of my life. It's scary.

Inundated with work...

Sorry for the lack of content the past while. I have been really bogged down at school.

Just this week I have due a 321A assignment (4hrs), 317 assignment (4hrs), 330A assignment (5hrs), 323 assignment (6hrs), Astr303 assignment (12hrs) and a 321A lab (5hrs).

Lots of fun.

Hockey in a couple days.

Playoffs start tomorrow.

I'll have coverage of both, as well as a piece of the US ban on online poker. Stay tuned.

Cowichan Valley Country Club

I played (parts of) three seasons in the British Columbia Premier Baseball League, the league which has seen guys like Adam Loewen (Baltimore Orioles/Whalley Chiefs) and Scott Mathieson (Philadelphia Phillies/Langley Blaze) debut in the major leagues this year. It is the best youth baseball league in the nation, and continues to produce top talent.

But while other teams were fostering players destined to play in the big leagues, I played my first two years for the Cowichan Valley Canadians. We just happened to be the worst team in the league both years. But to tell you the truth, the season of 2003 was probably the most fun I've ever had playing baseball. See we weren't the Cowichan Valley Canadians, we were the Cowichan Valley Country Club. We went out and played hard, but we also had a shitload of fun. We were so bad we became conditioned to losing and we took it in stride. We won two of our first six games, and proceeded to lose the next 18 straight. Sitting at 2-22, our playoff hopes were long gone. Our coach was fired, and we became the league circus. New coaches were brought in, and you know what? We started to play better. We won six of our last twenty games (that's supposed to be good? lol) to finish the season 8-36.

One moment from that season stands out in the minds of all the players. It was an early July evening, a perfect night for baseball. The Victoria Mariners, our hated rivals since a lot of us CVers are actually from Victoria, were up in Chemainus to face off against us. They were a bunch of cocky bastards, and they treated us like rejects. The pitching matchup was a great one, our ace versus their ace. Kody Furnseth (our ace, no longer in baseball) vs Michael Saunders (Cdn National Team, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Seattle Mariners)). The game was tied 1-1 going to the bottom of the seventh, living up to all the pre-game expectations. For some reason, Bob Mabee, the Victoria manager, pulled Mike. He put in his son, Henry (Morehead State University) to pitch the 7th. He gets the first two batters out, and we're all preparing for extra innings. Our Saltspring Slugger, Mason Scott (New Mexico Military Institute) is up to bat with two outs and nobody on. I'm sitting on the bench outside the dugout with my teammate Brian White (Pratt College, KS), and I comment to him how unbelievable it would be if Mason took Henry deep right here. Next pitch, not ten seconds after my comment, Henry delivers the pitch and Mason hits one deep to the opposite field just over the right centre wall. WOW. We all went absolutely crazy. The game was meaningless in the whole scheme of things, yet it had so much meaning to all of us. The Country Club had defeated the "vaunted" Mariners. What a great feeling.

We went on to beat them again later in the year (2-2 for the year) when I hit a two run single in the bottom of the sixth to complete a comeback from down 5-0 to win 7-6. I also got the win that game, despite pitching quite poorly.

Other highlights of the year include tying Langley (the best team in the league) 1-1 at the Parksville tournament and sweeping Abbotsford on their home field.Yes we were shitty, yes we got our asses handed to us each weekend. But we did have fun. And we did get a few victories along the way which were made all the more sweet after losing so much.

On a sadder note, one of my coaches that year, Bruce Kielbieski, has seen his gall bladder cancer spread throughout his body and he is not much longer for this world. My thoughts are with him, his wife Terry and children Cody and Ashley.

Interesting Hand

"So Evan, what the hell are you doing in this hand? Judging by this hand, I'd say you belong in the kiddie pool."

Ok, on the surface, I'd agree this hand does not exactly look like it was played by someone who is "supposed" to be as good as me. But it is not as ugly as it seems. In fact, it is the opposite. I believe this is an excellent example of poker played well at my level (NL100).

Okay, so let's go through this hand, move by move.

Preflop, it's folded to me on the button. With any two reasonable cards this is an automatic raise. So T6s was definitely a raise here. 3.5BB is pretty standard for me, so nothing odd happened here.

One caller and we see a flop of [3c 8c 5h]. Ugly flop for me, missing me wide left. Still, he checks, so I have to fire a continuation bet. This is mandatory in this spot for two reasons. One, to try and win the pot right there with continued aggression. The other is to avoid giving a free card. Now he check raises. Ok, I fire continuation bets a lot, I'm used to getting check raised. What does one to do counteract this? Reraise weak and show the bluff. If opponents know you're capable of 3 betting with nothing, they're not going to want to check raise you without a monster. So I reraise with nothing.

The next action is interesting. It's not that he calls my reraise, it's the time he takes to call it. He took 3/4 of the clock to make the call. What does this mean? Well he could be acting and I could be screwed, bluffing into a set or something. But more likely? Look back at the betting. Call preflop, checks the ragged flop, check raises my bet, then goes into the tank and finally calls my large reraise. What does it add up to? Spelled out like this, it's easy to see that the guy has a flush draw (and a pair to go with it potentially) and was calculating his pot odds on the flop to beat my "monster".

The turn is the [8s] for a board of [3c 8c 5h][8s]. This is a good card. Now my opponent checks to me. I have no pair and no draw whatsoever. This is where this hand gets really interesting. I have nothing, no help on the way, but I do "know" my opponent's hand. The question is how I proceed. At this point in the hand the pot is forty something dollars and I only have 35 left. Most players push their chips in here, one last gasp at stealing this pot. I know better. The fact is most players are donks. If I push here, most players will call with a flush draw, and I'll lose. My hand cannot even beat a busted flush draw. If I fire here I have nothing left for the river and can't bluff out a blown flush draw. So I'm not pushing. What are my other options? Can I check here? It's an option, but not a very good one. Checking here induces a bluff on the river, which is definitely not what I want to do. If I check and he sets me in on the river, there's no way I can call with ten high, even if I know he's bluffing. Can I bet a reasonable amount, say 15 or 20 bucks? Not a good idea, because it leaves me with almost nothing on the river to bluff with. And at that point, a lot of donks will feel committed and call just to see your hand. So what is the best option? What's left? I can't check. I can't bluff all in, I can't bet a reasonable amount. All that is left is underbetting the pot. And this is by far the best play. So that's what I did. I bet the minimum, one dollar. What does this bet say? It's yelling RAISE ME! I WANT YOU TO RAISE ME! But I know this guy knows I have a big hand, and I know he knows that the min bet is a sucker bet, and he knows I know I want him to raise. So therefore I know he is going to just call and see his river for cheap, which he thinks is a great deal, but he is actually getting by far the worst of it. He calls and we see the river. I just have to dodge the flush card. If one of the other tens comes off, I'll check it down and hope to win with tens up.

The river is the [8h] for a board of [3c 8c 5h 8s][8h]. This is an excellent card. No flush, no backing into a pair that he'll be tempted to call me down with. There is no way this card helped him. He checks to me, I bet enough to commit myself so he can't resteal or call to see my hand for cheap, he folds and I steal a $64 pot with nothing.

Like I said, an interesting hand. A nice look at the thought processes required to play this game successfully.

----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to rregehr28 [Td 6d]
hefish: folds
jasrys: folds
GuyZox: folds
rregehr28 (button): raises to $3.50
Camel_11: calls $3
BFREEFALL: folds
----- FLOP ----- [3c 8c 5h]
Camel_11: checks
rregehr28: bets $3.50
Camel_11: raises to $9
rregehr28: raises to $28.50
Camel_11: calls $19.50
----- TURN ----- [3c 8c 5h][8s]
Camel_11: checks
rregehr28: bets $1
Camel_11: calls $1
----- RIVER ----- [3c 8c 5h 8s][8h]
Camel_11: checks
rregehr28: bets $28.85
Camel_11: folds
Returned uncalled bets $28.85 to rregehr28
----- SHOW DOWN -----
rregehr28: shows [Td 6d] (Three of a kind, Eights, Ten high)
rregehr28 collects $64 from Main pot

Chad is NOT here

I'd like to settle this issue once and for all.

Chad is not, I repeat, Chad is NOT here. And Chad isn't coming either, just in case you were wondering, which I know you were.

Kindest regards,

chadbrochill17

Congratulations Eva Avila!

Ok, I'm going to take some heat for this one.

The one show I watch the whole summer long is Canadian Idol. The final episode took place last Monday night, and the winner was crowned in the final results show last night.

Right from the top ten, I knew Eva was the one to beat. She not only is by far and away the best singer, but it is charismatic, gorgeous and speaks three languages fluently.

The 19 year old from Gatineau, PQ was flawless week after week, culminating in the final performances last week which were absolutely stunning. Her performances of the Natasha Bedingfield's "Wild Horses", the Idol single "Meant to Fly", and Prince's "How Come You Don't Call Me" were remarkable.

This girl has international superstar written all over her. Congratulations Eva and good luck on what is sure to be an outstanding career in the music business!

Hand of the Week

Cool hand. I flopped the nuts!

Unfortunately, so did two others along with another flopping two pair!

Hundreds of thousands of hands, and I've never seen three people flop the nuts in the same hand.

CRAZY!

Response to Comment

A reader responded to my religion post a few days ago, and I haven't had the chance to respond until now. Instead of posting a comment that could get lost down the page, I decided to just make a new post in response. Please post any comments in this post, not the one down the page.

1)will mankind ever reach total understanding, and if so, who's to say what that is?
2)what if religion (or belief in a God or gods) is more than fictitious explanation?

1) My analysis is mathematical in nature. It invokes the limit concept, which uses infinitessimals to approximate (in fact, find explicit solutions to) otherwise unsolvable problems.

"Total understanding" is merely one of these idealized "approximations" used to find an explicit solution, but like infinity, impossible to attain except in an infinite amount of time.

Do not confuse the usage of limiting idealizations with a non-explicit result.

2) It is possible that there is actually a greater being. But it is not for the reasons humans believe in one. If they are, in fact, correct, it is only serendipitous, not due to any knowledge imparted upon humans thousands of years ago passed down through generation after generation to today.

Back on Track (well sort of)

I titled this post before I got in the shower. I have had an excellent past week poker wise.

I got out of the shower and decided to play a little bit before writing this up. I ended up only playing for about 15 minutes. That 15 minutes was the worst 15 minutes I have ever experienced in my poker career so far. Tonight I had managed to finish $300 before I got in the shower. I got out, and lost $320 in 15 minutes. What? Excuse me? How the hell does THAT happen? Bad beats, bad beats, bad beats, sketchy play due to the bad beats.

99 vs AK all in PF vs this donkey who had gone all in the hand before with K7. He hits Kxx and I'm done. -$40.

KTo vs 6c7c on flop KT2, guy calls big flop and turn bets and hits the flush on the river. Nothing I could do. -$50.

Q9 BB special flop comes JT8. I got the nuts! Guy comes out betting, I raise cause of the two diamonds, next guy reraises, original bettor folds, I go all in for my last 65. He calls with 8T. Hits a T on the river for a boat. Cool. -$75.

Now here is the tilty hand after those beats. I get AA on the button, three limpers to me, I raise it to 4.5x. I get 3 callers. Flop is J92 rainbow. Nice. Check check bet. Maybe I should raise here to define my hand and maybe keep the pot small. I just called. Fold, fold. Turn is another deuce, which is good for me cause I now beat J9 which would be a distinct possibility. Guy bets again. I call again. River is a blank. Now the pot is pretty big, and now the guy goes all in. I had gotten so smoked, I instacalles for some reason without thinking. I rarely go on tilt but I did here. I should have known he had me murdered. He flips up 22 for quad deuces and takes down a monster pot. -$95.

The other $60 were general non-descript lost hands and maybe a beat or two I have forgotten.

All in FIFTEEN minutes.

It's 2:30 and I'm supposed to sleep after pissing away 300 bucks in 15 minutes? This stuff usually doesn't bother me, but that is a horrible loss.

And I have my first Advanced Calculus assignment due on Friday which I haven't started. Now I feel like shit.

Anyways, now for the original "back on track" stuff. Tonight's bullshit notwithstanding, I have been playing much better poker the last week and have been handsomely rewarded. The past week I've netted a $US2600 profit. Now that's what poker is all about!

I took some time off, read a half dozen Sklansky/Malmuth books, and commited myself to playing solid fundamentally once again. I discovered that I had been playing way too many hands out of position for raises. This was a massive leak in my game. I was also, in general, playing too many hands, as well as raising too many hands. Raising with suited connectors can be a good mix-up play, but it also chops off the implied odds you would like to have with those hands. Raising too much with these hands is a leak.

Even after dropping the $320 tonight, I still finished +$42 for the day. Not very much, statistically pretty much zero, but it's always nice to book a plus instead of a minus. It also gives me 6/7 days that have been profitable this past week.

I also broke my one day record win the other day. Previously it stood at $609. I won $601 on Sunday, then managed to win $718 on Monday, to break the record.

Anyways, it is nice to be back in the win column after playing some terrible poker in August. I have also now broken $16,000 for the year, a little off from where I wanted to be, but still pretty good. $20,000 for 2006 is very attainable.

Sept 14, 2006. I'd just like to say Happy Birthday to my "bro" Owen, who is celebrating 20 years on Earth today.

Sept 11, 2001

Here is what happened on September 11, 2001:

16,000 children starved to death.

12,000 people died from AIDS.

5,500 people died from diarrhea.

3,200 people died from malaria.

3,000 people died from measles.

2,819 people died in the attacks on the WTC.

Perspective is everything.

Happy Birthday Me!

I was born into this world on September 8th 1986 at 7:57 P.M.

I'm drunk right now (yay) but I would just like to wish myself a happy birthday.

Two decades on this planet is quite the milestone. Here's to the last twenty and eighty more!

NDP Policy Convention

The NDP are meeting in Quebec City this week to discuss party policy. Not everything in the linked article is wanted party-wide, as much as this obviously right-leaning journalist would like you to believe.

Article

And some of my thoughts:

"First and foremost, Canada would immediately withdraw from Afghanistan."

Definitely agree.

"In future, forget about Canadian peacekeeping missions anywhere -- the NDP "rejects the use of military intervention as a tool for peace.""

I support dropping all "peacekeeping" as well.

"While they are at it, the Dippers would get on the phone to George Bush to demand the U.S. withdraw from Iraq. Shivers in the White House."

Not our business. It is not the Canadian government's job to babysit our misbehaving southern neighbours.

"Forget about arming customs guards and demanding passports at all Canada-U.S. crossing points."

Agree. The less guns the better off we are.

"In the Utopian Canada of NDP grassroots, pot smoking and hookers would be legalized..."

Definitely agree on both counts.

"mandatory prison sentences would be outlawed"

No. This is one policy I definitely disagree with.

"and we'd all take to the streets every November in a special national "Day of Remembrance" for transsexuals."

Huh?

"Every riding would elect two MPs -- a man and a woman -- to ensure gender equality in parliament..."

I'm all for equality, but forced "equality" is not equality.

"and the country would be declared a republic, in part because "Queen Elizabeth II was not born nor has ever lived in Canada.""

No. I am vehemently against severing all ties to Britain.

""Total elimination of spin doctors, consultants and speech writers, so that all policy arises from a genuine concern for justice, and so that tax dollars are spent on programs instead of a manipulation of the masses.""

Blah, blah, blah.

Shout out to my bros

I was just playing some poker, listening to some Jack Johnson...and I got to wondering. Any of my bros out there want to come over and listen to JJ's music together? Maybe after we can talk about it. That would be great.

And then we can play some gamecube.

Don't forget the Axe.

Canada advances to wild card tournament...

SAN JOSE, Cuba (CP) - Canada's Olympic baseball hopes are still alive.

The team advanced to the final qualifying tournament for the 2008 Beijing Games after a 3-1 win over Nicaragua at the Americas qualifier Tuesday. The win guaranteed Canada a fourth-place finish at the tournament and a berth in a wild-card qualifying event in Taiwan. A date for the tournament has not been set. Cuba and the United States were awarded automatic Olympic berths by virtue of finishing first and second in the tournament while third-place Mexico will also move on to the wild-card tournament.

The U.S. defeated Cuba 8-5 in the gold-medal game.

Mike Saunders of Victoria (pictured, #20) was 2-for-4 Tuesday with a pair of RBIs to lead Canada's offence while Canadian starter Chris Begg of Uxbridge, Ont., struck out five and allowed just one walk through 6 1-3 innings.

Mike Kusiewicz of Ottawa and Mike Johnson of Edmonton were solid in relief, combining to allow one hit over the final 2 2-3 innings. Johnson was credited with the save.

At the wild-card tournament, eight teams will compete for the three final spots at the Olympics.

© The Canadian Press 2006

Congratulations to Michael (the youngest player on Team Canada by more than three years) and the rest of the team! They have an excellent chance to qualify in Taiwan.

Religion and Knowledge

In the limit as knowledge approaches infinity, the need for religion becomes nil, for with total understanding comes a total lack for fictitious explanation. Defining variable "k" as knowledge, we can model this mathematically as such:


So then we can assume the need for religion is a temporary step in our evolution as a species. At first we are too dumb to think of anything, then we develop enough to start to question our surroundings. But at this point our brains are capable of only questioning, not answering. This is the evolutionary stage that requires religion to supply all answers. Eventually, we evolve to the stage where we begin to be able to supply some of our own answers, not from our imaginations, but via our intellects. Eventually we evolve to the point where we can supply all the answers, totally supressing the need for any imaginary answers (religion) altogether.

Today, we live in a stage of human evolution where we have sufficient scientific knowledge to begin to start casting off the shackles of religious and intellectual oppression.

And if we accept that reliance on religion is transient, and if we accept the mathematical equation above, how is it possible to still believe in a religion? Is it not a contradiction? If we know where we have been, and we know where we are, and we know where we will eventually be, how is it possible to assume a position contradicting this (complete) knowledge? Maybe I need to give an example to illustrate my point. If you're in eastern Russia driving due south, and enter into Mongolia, you know if you keep driving, you will eventually enter China. But religious people will tell you you will be in Mongolia forever. Of course this postion is assinine.

I posit that to believe in religion is just as assinine as the never ending Mongolian highway.

Crypto 50K Added Results

I did not like the structure of this tournament very much. Blinds went up too fast, 626 entrants and more than half of them were eliminated in the first hour.

I survived the first hour with an average stack, which is a pretty decent result. Early on I played an important hand that really could have changed the way things went for me today.

I'm in MP with 7c7h. Blinds were at 15-30 and I have about 1500. I limp and there's another limper, the SB folds and the BB raises to 60. Me and the limper call. Flop is great for me. As Qs 7d. BB bets out 150 into the 195 pot. I raise it to 350 as to avoid cheap cards. To my dismay the guy behind me cold calls the bet and raise. The bettor calls the raise as well. Mission not really accomplished, but oh well, I have a nice pot and a big hand. Next card off the deck is the 3s. What a terrible card for me. The pot is now around 1250. BB checks, I check along cause I pretty much know the cold caller has the flush. He now bets it, but bets small giving me the odds to to try to draw out. Unfortunately, bozo in the BB goes over the top for all his chips. I'm now forced to fold, even though I know I have the BB killed. The other limper calls the raise and shows Js9s for the second nut flush. The BB flips over Ks......Jh? Huh? What a fish. Anyways, he hits the 7s on the river to win the hand. Of course that is the same 7s that would have given me quads. Sigh. I actually am pleased the way I played the hand though. I like my calls PF, I like my raise on the flop, and I like my check to the cold caller on the turn. I also really like the disciplined fold that most players couldn't make. I left myself with ~1100 chips and still a good chance.

Second hand after the break I pick up AA with ~2800 and blinds at 100/200. It's folded to me in the CO, and wanting action I just min raise. In retrospect maybe this was the wrong play. It folded to the BB who called the raise and the flop was JJ6 rainbow. Ok, but not good. Buddy checks the flop, I check behind. Turn is a blank, he bets 400 into the 900 pot. I call. River is another blank, he bets 800 into the 1700 pot and I call. He turns over QJo. What went wrong here? I mean, I got unlucky for sure, but could I have done something better? I think it all comes down to the PF play. From the flop on I think I played the hand perfectly. I'm thinking I should have raised to 500-600 instead of just min-hitting it to 400. Winning the blinds when they get that big isn't really a horrible result, and I lost touch with that fact. I like my check behind on the flop, as a lot of the time this will induce a bluff from a random hand or a value bet from a hand like two nines or two tens or maybe even A6. When faced with his turn bet, this was what I was thinking. I beat anything but a jack and there were numerous reasonable holding he could be betting half the pot with on the turn and also some unreasonable ones (stone bluffs). So I definitely like my smooth call. A raise was an option here, but I don't want to commit myself in case he has the jack and I don't want to stop him from blowing off his chips at me with a hand like two tens. After the river was a blank, I figured I was going to call any reasonable bet that would leave me with some chips in case I was beaten. When he bet only 800 into the 1700 pot, I was pretty much forced to call getting better than 3-1. He flips over QJo and I lose the pot.

The hand I went out on was pretty much unavoidable. Blinds are at 150/300 and I've got ~1100. A guy in EP raises to 900 and I look down at AJo two off the button. Now in retrospect I suppose I should have given the EP raiser a little more respect, but I only had 4BB and I needed to make a move while I still had some chips. So I go all in and he flips up AK. A flop of K9x later and I'm out in 192nd place out of 626.

Feedback

So what do people visiting this blog think of it?

POS? Not bad? Poor content? Excellent?

Let me know what you think and what I can do to improve it.

Also, any ideas for future articles/postings would be appreciated. I have opinions on just about everything, be it the Canadian presence in Afghanistan, the status of the Edmonton Oiler defense, or how to play pocket aces from under the gun.

Advertising

I'm experimenting with some of the advertising here. I like the Firefox ad at the top, but I'm not sure about the ones along the side. I wish they could be targetted ads instead of random anime and search engine ads. Hopefully my blog gets crawled and we start seeing some poker or hockey ads.

Anyways, I'd appreciate if you gave the ads a click or three.

Rampant Hatred

Why is there hatred in the world? What is the point of war? Why does it matter if two people have different religions? Who cares if you worship a different god(s) or read a different story book than me? Who cares what colour your skin is? Why is any one set of persons any "better" or "worse" than another set of persons?

What is gained by spreading hate?

If only people around the world would realize how stupid they all are. They are all busy fighting religious and political wars, every one of them saying "We are the chosen ones, and you the infidels!". They then proceed to try and kill each other, and even kill themselves if it means killing more of the "infidels".

What they are saying is "My religion is right, yours is wrong. My politics are right, yours are wrong." And they try and kill each other to prove themselves right. How does killing each other prove whose politics or religion are(is) the best (the correct one(s)). Killing each other only proves who the better war monger is. What the hell is the point of that?

GWB wants to stop so called "fascism". He wants to install the democratic process in these war torn countries. Who is he to say what is best for these countries? What gives him the right to tell people half way around the world how to live their lives?

The way I see it, if only the world would "live and let live", then the world would be one step closer to the utopian world I dream of. And I don't mean the right wing christian version of that saying, which of course is "live and let live....unless you are gay, black, asian, diseased, jewish, muslim, or any other blasphemous un-american religion". I mean tolerance of every person, regardless of whatever differences they may have from what you deem normal or acceptable.

Unfortunately, people are so deeply tied to their respective religions that they are immune to reason. It would take a paradigm shift of unfathomable magnitude to change the way these people think.

Crypto 50K Added

I just registered for the Cryptologic Network's 50K added tournament this Sunday morning. Assuming 1000 players, the prize pool will be around $85,000. That is one hell of a massive prize pool for a $33+3 buyin.

How nice would it be to cash deep on Sunday? After a really terrible August, I feel I am owed something. It really is too bad I'm not very good at tournaments. Maybe I can get lucky. I'm not a tournament player at all, but the massive overlay makes this one way too +EV to pass up.

I figure 1st place will be about $20,000. I think I'd shit my pants if I won that.

I just have to play solid tournament poker. It's not like I don't know how to win. I just always seem to ADD out. Just concentrate, be patient, wait, wait, pounce, wait, wait, wait, pounce, bubble comes I turn into a semi-maniac. I'm not playing to win $100. I don't give a flying f about coming in 94th place. If I'm going to spend 5-10 hours or whatever it'll take, I'm doing it to make the final table. And once I get there, it's almost a return to early strategy. Wait for people to be eliminated, don't get too involved, try to get into the "real money" spots, the top 3. Once in the top three, the aggression gets turned up and it's all about putting pressure on the other two guys. Get your money in with the best hand, hope for the best.

Also on Sunday is the first CalPuck "weekly" tournament in a long time. If I'm not too burned out I'll toss some money into Stars and giv'er a go.

Canadian National Team (Baseball)

I would just like to congratulate my friend Michael Saunders and his teammates on the Canadian National Team for making it to the second round of Olympic Qualifying in Cuba.

Hope to see you in Beijing in 2008!

Pictured: Canada pitcher Brett Gray

Liberal Leadership

Who will be the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada? Right now there are two front runners, and two guys who are my favourites, but that lag behind the top two in terms of support.

Michael Ignatieff

Plus: -He's an academic.
-Extremely intelligent.
-Speaks french very well.
-Good looking guy.

Minus: -Supports the war in Iraq.
-New to politics
-Hasn't really lived in Canada all that much.



Bob Rae

Plus: -The leftist of the bunch.
-Proven track record.
-Speaks french well.
-Friendly looking.

Minus: -Too left for LPC?
-Popular in Ontario, what about elsewhere?
-Carries NDP stigma.



Gerard Kennedy

Plus: -Speaks french well.
-Best english speaker of all candidates.
-Popular stands on issues.
-Ontario politician, but has western roots.

Minus: -Isn't as well known as the two leading men.










Scott Brison

Plus: -Progressive socially.
-He is gay.
-Young, but experienced.

Minus: -He's gay.
-Former Tory.
-Too young?

Struggling

Why am I on such a bad streak?

I feel like I'm playing solid poker. I feel like I should be winning. After 20 some months of profitable poker, August 2006 is going to be my first losing month. It really is pretty hard for me to swallow. Has my game gone to seed? What has changed?

I just finished nine tabling Party for 3 hours. I started out pretty well, up close to 100 within 30 minutes. It quickly went south. I flop the nut flush and some donk with a set raises the flop all in and I (obviously) call and he pairs up the river. What the hell can I do? I flop top two with AK and some guy with QT turns a straight. Sigh. Now I'm out $200 for my troubles. Great.

It used to be so easy. I would profit almost every day. All I had to do was put in time and I made money. I don't if it's me that's gotten worse or the other players that have smartened up...it's tough to say. Maybe this is just a bad streak.

It doesn't help that my favourite site has gone to total shit. Tiger Gaming is a nightmare these days. Early this year it was easy to get 3 or 4 tables of NL100 in the day and evening. Now it's pretty much impossible to find 2. Their software problems have turned away many of their customers besides me, I suspect. That place was an absolute gold mine. It really is quite sad that I can't play there anymore.

Very frustrating, to say the least.

Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em...

"Poker is 20% skill, and 80% suckouts".

"I can be the greatest player in the world, but if you pick a random person off the streets for me to play against, he can beat me. Therein lies the beauty of the game".

"Yes, poker is about making skilled, correct plays, but what is paramount is minimizing luck".

"Slowroll me again and I'll slowly roll your recently decapitated head down the street until it's run over by a gas guzzling SUV".

"Poker is not about this hand, this hour, this session, this week or even this month. Poker is about the hundreds of thousands of hands you have played and will play over the course of your lifetime. In the limit as the number of hands becomes very large, good plays and good players ALWAYS win".

"If poker were easy, then any dumbass could become a great player. Where's the advantage in that?"

"Think of how stupid the average poker player is. Now realize that, necessarily, half of them are even dumber than that".

"A bad player uses his heart to play. A good player uses his mind to play. A great player uses both".

"Your greatest advantage comes not from the plays you make, but from the plays you do not make".

-Musings on the great game, mostly original quotes.

Calgary Flames

The hockey season is seven weeks away. Even after the 18 month post-lockout layoff last season, I don't remember being this excited about the start of the season. This season my team goes in as one of the favourites to win the Stanley Cup. Last year some gave us this honour as well, while others gave us the "Cinderella" title instead. This year all the Cinderella talk is gone. This year we are legitimate contenders. The best goalie in the world. One of if not the best defensive unit in the NHL. One of the best players and leaders in the world. The Calgary Flames, in my opinion, are the team to beat in the West this season.

My lines:

Friesen-Tanguay-Iginla
Huselius-Langkow-Kobasew
Nilson-Lombardi-Amonte
Lundmark-Yelle-McCarty

Regehr-Phaneuf
Hamrlik-Zyuzin
Ference-Warrener

Kiprusoff
McLennan

It will be interesting to see how much time two of the Flames' more heralded recent prospects see this year. Tim Ramholt (2003-2/39) and Andrei Taratukhin (2001-2/41) both are signed and presumably in North America. Hopefully each gets ~15-20 games and can show us all something. I have always been a Ramholt fan and I think he can be a top 4 guy for the Flames as early as next season.

Flames sked: http://www.hockeynut.com/cgysched.html

Rt. Hon. Evan - Prime Minister of Canada

Someday.

Of all my goals and dreams in life, financially, academically, socially, this is the one I hold most dear.

To be leader of the greatest country in the world and to be able to share my vision for this nation with Canadians is what I want most in the world.

As this is my first real non-introductory posting, I should probably introduce my beliefs I feel are fundamental to what Canada is and should be.

Above all else, I am against religion. I am vehemently against religion. To me it not only represents, but is, what is wrong with the world. Almost everything bad in this world is because of religion.

I am anti-hate. Although one might argue being anti-hate and anti-religion are one and the same. You will not get any arguments from me.

I am pro-choice. It is my opinion that a woman should have a right to choose no matter what.

I am anti-war. War, to borrow from the poker nomenclature, is -EV (negative expected value for you non-poker readers out there). Why fight? What's the point? Just to settle once and for all whose religion is best (correct?) But if we fight over whose religion is best, isn't the only thing we actually settle the answer to who the best fighters are? I don't know. War makes me sick.

I am pro-equal rights. I believe that no Canadian should be discriminated upon. I believe in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I am pro-free thought. I believe in the value of science and the scientific method. I believe in finding answers in the real world, not in a thousand year old story book.

I am pro-Kyoto and am an environmentalist.

My Canada is a Canada where every Canadian enjoys the same freedoms and rights. My Canada is a progressive, free thinking nation, free of religious opression. My Canada leaves no Canadian behind. My Canada is a nation where post-secondary education is paid for by the government in whole. My Canada is one of the scientific leaders of the world, always on the cutting edge of research. My Canada abstains from war altogether. My Canada is the greatest nation in the world.

That is my Canada. Does it not sound wonderful?

First Blog Post Ever

Welcome to Evan's Blog!

This is where I hope to express my thoughts, beliefs and feelings on whatever crosses my mind.

What will this blog be about? I guess it will be about me, more specifically what matters to me.

So what matters to me? School is an important part of my life. Poker is an integral part of my existence. Without poker I would not have most of what I have in this world. Poker facilitates my school, my ability to purchase things like the computer in front of me, my social life, and the most important thing - my ability to be lazy! Okay so what else is important to me? During hockey season the most important thing in my life is the Calgary Flames. The Flames mean more to me than pretty much anything else on Earth. Okay, so we have school, poker and the Flames. One more thing remains, and it's a biggie. Politics. Hopefully this blog will become a forum for my political beliefs. Some people think I'm a radical. I believe I (and the few who think like me) am the beginning of a new movement. More on this to come.

So thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope it becomes as good as I hope it will be.