So I skated on Jury duty, perhaps the Solano County courts read here and changed their minds. Regardless, I'm a free man and noone got offended which is a victory of sorts. Then again, I was going to have to be excused one way or the other since I was booked to speak at a SQL Server Protection Seminar with over 400 attendees. I think that's my largest audience to date. If not, it has to be close. I've done a couple of 300 person public speaking engagements in the past.
No, I don't have a problem doing public speaking. I do get extremely nervous and paranoid that I'm forgetting something in the 5 minutes prior to starting. Then I'm fine and relaxed after the first slide pops up on the screen. I fall right into the groove. Just that last 5 minutes waiting that gets to me; weird.
I've been asked over the years by a number of people how I learned to speak so comfortably with an audience staring at me. I never took any training so I guess that it is all natural ability or what is probably more the case, lack of concern. I think that the first key is to know what you're talking about. Next, you have to believe in yourself and your abilities. Next you have to speak up, I usually try to slow down my speaking since I normally tend to talk fast. My last bit of advice is to practice, practice, practice. Once you've been doing this for a while, you don't even really need to practice or warm up. About 7 years ago I was with one of my sales guys at a hotel for a small seminar, my side of the conversation went something along these lines: "Remind me again, who are we here to see? Me? I'm presenting? Ok, what's my topic? Ya, no problem, just introduce me I'm all set."
So a little bit of preparation and you too can be oogled on stage by crowds the world over. BTW, that imagine them in their underwear thing is a complete myth. It just grosses you out, unless you happen to get a speaking tour for strippers or something.
We cruised to Left Bank in Pleasant Hill last night for dinner. I should probably get some anger management training, but I worry that I will lose all personality. So on with it, Left Bank is a (FUCK FRANCE!) French restaurant. The food wasn't bad (FUCK FRANCE!) food, but I was in the mood for beef so I had the Filet Mignon. The chefs must have sensed my hostilities toward (FUCK FRANCE!), because they made a Medium Rare steak come out with not a speak of red in the middle. (FUCK FRANCE!) assholes. I hadn't eaten all day so I didn't bother to complain because then I'd have to wait for them to un-Fuck (FRANCE!) their mistake. Also, it wasn't nearly good enough to support the overprice. Then again, most people go to places like that to play make believe so they wouldn't have been able to tell the difference anyway. The mind has a funny way of making people believe what they want to. The wine was pretty good, I had the Tin Roof, Tin Barn, Tin Man, whatever the hell it was, Zinfandel (Sonoma Grapes). Not too shabby.
On the way home I stopped at Applebee's to grab a nightcap. I ordered a double Glenlivet on the rocks and the idiot manager brought me a, wait for it, Pint Glass full of ice and Scotch complete with a soda straw. I looked at it, she waited, I looked at her, she smiled. "Well that's a first for me. Pint-o-Scotch instead of the rocks glass?" I asked. "It wouldn't all fit with the ice," she smiled. I stared at the pint glass for a few more moments, "alright, I can take it if you can." When Sarah the bartender had returned from her break I complained (this is me remember), she stared at the glass too and made with a puzzled Hmmm. A few minutes after Sarah left I finally finished my Pint-o-Scotch. I flagged her down for one more glass and she did it right. Sarah returned with a rocks glass and said, "I think that she put the last on in the Pint glass..." I interrupted, "Because you were all out of trash cans?" I finished my glass and cashed out. Guess I've just spent too many years in bars and I assume that people know how to make a drink. The service is decent, the drinks are only slightly overpriced and the food is terrible. If I didn't like chatting with Sarah, I'd find a new regular place. Kind of hard to find high brow entertainment in Fairtucky.
Next up! I am currently working on more projects than I care to recall at the moment. The PokerQuiz app is in a bit of a stall while my ISP get's their act straight on the database back-end. I'm doing the DB in SQL Server 2005 and they're still running the 2000 edition. I'm not ready to release it today or anything, but their lack of estimated time of arrival has me irked. Ah, well I'll keep burning code in the meantime.
I am also knee deep in numerous writing projects for work as well as The3Seat. The 3 docs for work aside, my latest is a Poker essay is titled "How to Slaughter your Home Game". I've played a few home games and low-limit games recently that were full of so many obvious and retarded plays that I feel compelled to help. That one should be ready to go before tomorrow is finished. I'll post a blog link to it when it ships.
I still have my essay on proper trips play is still in an idle state, but I'm doing work on the other aspects of the paper, just not typing anything. The home game paper grabbed my attention after seeing all those shockingly bad card players recently. However, I'm still committed to shipping the trips paper...sometime.
I have a short story under way, but that's probably not going to make this site since it's - like we say in the industry - out of scope. I haven't written fiction in well over a decade, but when the bug bites then I have to bring it to life. It's probably a longer term project, but I'm toying with the idea of releasing it chapters or sections at a time. Perhaps a pay to view model. I'm still working through those salient details. Email me and let me know your thoughts.
I have logged a couple of sessions at the felt in the past week. More just screwing around in low limit at Cache Creek since I haven't been in the mood to drive to Bay 101 to play the 20/40 as of late. However, it's just a matter of time.
Speaking of which, my time has run out for this post. Need to get back to writing other stuff. ;-)
Nicholas has left the 3s