Saturday So Far

[dreamshark]

Got up at 8, made myself buckwheat pancakes on the fine griddle on the new stove, warmed up the car for a surprisingly insufficient 10 minutes, and scooted off to ice skating class. I wasn't feeling too competent during the class itself - stiffness in the hips from some exercises yesterday encumbered me a bit. There's a place to practice after class which I usually take advantage of for about half an hour. After 20 minutes or so I finally started to loosen up enough to feel comfortable skating backwards, which felt so good that I kept going for an extra 15 minutes. That's a total of 1 hour 15 minutes of skating, the longest I've ever skated at once.

I've spent the rest of the day working towards installing the ass-kicking new 7.1 channel computer speaker set I bought from a work colleage on Friday. I haven't actually plugged it in yet - I've been cleaning the office to make room for the massive subwoofer.

Now I have to stop and get ready for the Office Christmas Party. I'm not really excited about this, but it's always a good idea to attend events that your employer has spent a lot of money on. If nothing else, it's a free meal. This one could be more fun than the usual office holiday party because of the gaming theme. They're setting up some kind of portable casino in one of the function rooms at the Sofitel, and issuing play money and raffle tickets. This is the only way you can get engineers to gamble, of course. We're way too rational to throw away our OWN money on games that we are mathematically certain to lose at.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

This is the only way you can get engineers to gamble, of course.

If you will concede that poker is a game of skill....

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll concede that there is enough skill involved in poker that engineers can play that game without considering themselves to be gambling.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Which was what I meant (plus it's a quote from Glory Road).

Clearly there's a lot of luck involved. If people with infinite bankrolls played poker infinitely long, the best one would be ahead most of the time I think. Real games are rarely played on those terms.

(For me, it's definitely gambling, and I don't do it.)

[nancymcc.livejournal.com]

You are definitely right about the engineers and the gambling, although there's always an exception to the rule -- a guy who started at IBM just before I left wanted to make big bets on anything that moved. I figured it had to be an addiction he'd acquired growing up in NYC, and I've often wondered how he fared in Rochester MN.

One of our Sales guys (he only sells software, doesn't write it) claims his wife always wins in Las Vegas. I guess I didn't ask what games she plays, I just kept my scoffing to myself.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

To continue my gross generalizations, sales and marketing people LOVE gambling. I think sales in particular requires the same kind of goofy, irrational optimism as gambling. Yeah, that last one didn't work out, but the next time I'll strike it rich!

Sure enough, every marketing person I encountered at the party expressed great enthusiasm for gambling, while most of the engineers didn't even know how to play blackjack. Neither did I, but now I do. I even know the theory of how to do well, but only the theory. In reality I lost $500 in about 20 minutes.

[nancymcc.livejournal.com]

Not in reality. In fantasy!

[nancymcc.livejournal.com]

oh, also....

I'm officially in marketing, because as the designer of ads, web site, etc I report to the VP of Mktg. But I'm so opposed to gambling (for myself, I don't care what others choose to lose) that I don't even buy charitable raffle tickets. Unfortunately for me, all our engineers work from home, so guess who I get to hang out with in the office?

M tops me -- he's so agin' it that he didn't even play the fantasy games at HIS company holiday party a few years back (whereas I, like you, enjoyed the education in Blackjack).

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I hope you had fun at the party. I find that sort of casino frustrating when I actually win big on the play money.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"I find that sort of casino frustrating when I actually win big on the play money."

Well, I didn't have that problem, anyway!

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

When I was in college we had a casino night and I won 36,000 'dollars' at roulette. :)