A kickstarter campaign was launched not too long ago to fund the worlds first high-end consumer friendly virtual reality headset. This was basically supposed to be the VR headset that finally does virtual reality right. VR is nothing new, I've tried it before back at various arcades in the early nineties. It was clunky, had horrible head tracking, and very low quality graphics. Everyone wrote it off and rightfully so. Till some guy came up and said "we have the technology". Of course VR has such a bad rep from previous attempts no company was willing to back it, hence the kickstarter campaign. Anyway, the campaign was a huge success and they got all the money they needed to begin development.
Out comes this developers kit which is really meant for game designers, but so many people bought it and began sharing their own stuff that there are actually quite a few nifty demos out there to give you a taste of what VR was always meant to be. I finally grabbed one, and I must say I am impressed. There are still issues with your field of view, and until they come out with a lens that wraps around the side of your temple, or flat out project images on to your retina, you will still feel like you are looking through a pair of binoculars INTO the world, rather than actually feeling like you are IN the world. But it's still incredibly fascinating to look at, and as I write this my head is still spinning and my stomach nauseous from having just played around in the thing.
So far the most impressive worldly feel, and by that I mean a game that actually pulls you into the universe is Half Life 2. This is basically the only commercial game with official support for VR from the developer, so obviously it shines as a well polished example. Plus the world of HL2 is perfect for VR since it's so exploratory. It's also the quickest to make you dizzy since there's so much interaction to proceed. You see, the more you have to move around, the more you get sick.
The easiest games to stomach are the pure demos. You just sorta sit back in a pod or something, or mindlessly walk empty corridors just kind of staring at stuff as you go. These are natural movements, and your brain is willing to accept the disconnect from physical motion and visual motion since you can kind of pretend you are sitting in an electric wheelchair and just gliding everywhere. It's the games like HL2 where you are supposed to be walking and climbing and going around corners that make your stomach churn, since now it feels like the world is just spinning around you. It's perfect to just stand still and look around, but as soon as you have to start moving and going around the corner of some building, your stomach turns into knots, or at least mine does.
What really makes this whole thing work though is the latency factor. Old VR systems used infra-red scanners and magentic resonance detectors and stuff that were just horribly slow and inaccurate, plus the computational horsepower available at the time was pathetic, so when you turned your head left, it could take a full second for the screen to turn left. You basically just felt like you strapped a cellphone to your face and were looking at a little box. With advancements in gyroscopes and accelerometers thanks in large part to the mobile phone boom, incredibly accurate and fast devices are now available and allow the headtracking to be 100% SPOT ON. You move your head the equivalent of 1 pixel width of visual density, and the screen updates PERFECTLY. There is absolutely no delay whatsoever between your eyes and what you see. You can literally turn your head in any direction, upside down, sideways, at an angle, left, right, over your shoulder, you can even spin in your chair and do a 180 and look directly behind you. The camera follows with absolute perfect precision. The only thing left to do with this device is simply widen that field of view so you dont feel like you're looking through a tube.
So in my previous blog I talked about having my shit stolen by the movers I hired to move, my shit. So today was his court appearance where he gets to make a plea in front of a judge and face his accuser and all that jazz. The cops told me it really makes an impression on the judge if the victim comes to court to display the severity of the case and such. I make my appearance, which was a little bit weird since I have never seen the inside of a courtroom before. I felt kinda guilty at first because the kid has been in jail for 2 weeks now just waiting for his hearing. He wasnt able to post bail so it's pretty obvious he's a life degen on the wrong path.
Anyway the room is packed with all walks of life and I'm first to be called. I enjoyed looking like a fish out of water, walking to the wrong podium, and otherwise obviously not knowing what to do with myself. The kid is escorted from behind closed doors in a prison jumpsuit and shackles.
The judge recounts the events as described in my criminal report and verifies everyone agrees on what happened. Then he turns to the kid and starts quizzing him on his criminal past, asking him if he's ever stolen anything before and so on. It was a pretty obvious setup but alas, this guy's in chains for a reason because he's clearly not too bright given the crime he committed. The kid basically describes himself as a saint, before the officer who arrested him cuts him off. Before the officer even gets a word out the judge cuts HIM off, and says "wait wait wait, let me have my fun". There was an audible chuckle in the audience behind me. At that moment the judge proceeds to tear his kid a new asshole, reminding him it's pretty stupid to lie about your past to a fucking JUDGE who has access to your entire life's story. The kid has been arrested several times before for related crimes and was actually on fucking parole when he robbed me.
The echo of giggles continues in the background, and even I find myself struggling not to grin out of fear of the judge considering it disrespectful. Anyway the judge pwns this kid into oblivion while he stutters trying to save his ass with feeble "I'm truly sorry for what I did" comments, gives him a max sentence of another 30 days in jail, then deports his ass back to his home state to suffer the consequences of his parole violation. Judge looks to me and says "Sorry but thats the max I can give him". I nod and thats it. The cop who arrested him escorts me out, jiving about the whole experience on the way. He said the kid was a fucking freak and started doing all sorts of weird shit in the squad car when they arrested him. I didnt bother to get in depth.
All in all I have to say the situation was oddly satisfying. I like to think of myself as a "just" person, an honest person, a good person. I dont do evil shit, I dont hurt others, I live by the golden rule, all that sort of stuff. I kept wanting to feel bad for the kid, to prove to myself I have some sort of empathy. But all I could feel was joy that he got fucked. I mean honestly I think the punishment fits the crime. The kid lied to me about the phone, lied to the cops when they interrogated him, then lied right to a judge's face. How stupid can you be? The kid is obviously just another dumb pathological dip shit who just isnt learning his lesson.
I dont know if he's ever served REAL prison time before, but I'd like to think 45 days is jail probably sucks hard enough that maybe he really will learn something from this. Prison is supposed to rehabilitate people. Most of the time it doesnt, but in this situation I think there's a chance. If I dropped charges and this kid got off after 2 weeks in jail, he'd probably consider this a win. 2 week stint for a $500 prize? Hey no problem right? Shit you could make a living like that. Whatever... I'm glad he's being punished, hope he learns something from it, and still feel oddly good about the whole experience.
Check it! So I had to move to a new apartment this weekend that accepts month to month tenants while I wait for my new house to be constructed. I hired this moving crew to run the show since I'm lazy like that and prefer to sip mimosas on the patio while they do all the work. They finish up and I hop in my ride and take them to the new place. Next thing I know Holly pulls up next to me in the parking lot and says her cellphone is missing. Naturally first thing I do is try to dial it, but it goes straight to voicemail. The only time this happens is if the phone has been turned OFF. At this point I know it has to be theft since that points to a clear and deliberate attempt to prevent it from being rung.
I pull one of the boys aside privately and ask him if he saw anyone with it, which he of course denies. So I kinda let them unload all my shit before I finally call the cops, that way they cant get all pissy and just drive off without finishing the job. Cops interrogate them but they say nothing. Of course they get kinda offended at me and I hear one of them shouting over the phone with his boss about how "dis motha fucka din even axe us, he jus call da po-lice!" I make sure to strap my gat in case anything worse than shooting a bitch happens. I pay them and tell them to GTFO. One of them even asked for a tip which was especially awesome.
At this point I know one of these dumb mother fuckers will turn it back on in about 10 minutes to reap the rewards of his thievery. So I login to the Google Play Store and initiate an app install which will auto-download as soon as the phone comes online. It's some emergency GPS locator that silently starts reporting your phone's location over and over. Sure as fucking snot, suddenly I start getting messages about her phone. It sends Google Maps links so you can see where it is, and bam, there's her fucking phone about 30 miles up the road in the fucking ghetto.
I hop in my ride strapped, ready for anything, and have the cops meet me there. But then the fucking phone goes offline again. The culprit has turned it off! I call his supervisor and he agrees to stall the kid by telling him to meet up somewhere. I creep into the back of the parking lot and keep a beat on him while I update the police with his location. The kid walks into some grocery store and the cops pursue. 10 minutes later they come out with the bitch in handcuffs, phone in hand, and say he was hiding out in the bathroom.
They shake my hand and said it was fun since usually they fail to recover stolen phones due to lack of evidence. They were happy someone was able to leverage the power of tekmology for justice and return someone's shit back. I gotta say the cops were awesome throughout the entire event, in both cities in which I tracked it. Just very helpful, polite, quick, responsive, and good people. BUMP THE POLICE!
Video showing off my upgraded Google Nexus 7 system in my car. I actually did this like a year ago but have just been too lazy to record new footage lol.
Holy shit, anybody catch this yet? It's another original series by Netflix. Man this show has been hitting homeruns since the very first episode. I gotta hand it to Netflix, they know wtf they're doing. All you investors out there should be buying up stock. They're basically HBO without all the bullshit now. They are their own network, so they can produce whatever they want, and air it however they want. I really really reeaaaalllly applaud their new "all episodes at once" concept. The only reason society has to watch their favorite tv series across the span of half a fucking year is because the cable networks make them, so that people feel obliged to continue paying for their shitty overpriced tv packages week after week. Netflix took a gamble and said "maybe people will like our material so much, that we can just release the entire fucking show, all 20 episodes at once, and they'll stick around for the next installment". IT FUCKING WORKS. 8 bucks a month to get shows like House of Cards and now Hemlock Grove? With more new series on the way? Hell yes! Without the shackles of comcast/direcTV on their ass they're basically everything HBO wishes they were. And shame on HBO for not having the balls to challenge the networks, because netflix now beats them in subscriber base, and doesnt have to share any of the profits. These last 2 shows are just as good as anything HBO has come out with save for Game of Thrones, and I'm sure in due time Netflix will best them in that category as well.
Anyway Hemlock Grove reminds me a lot of True Blood. Set in a fictional reality where supernaturalism is considered standard, except without all the goofy fuckin retarded characters. I mean I like True Blood and all, but they have a few cheeseballs in there for yucks. Hemlock is all serious all the time. Love the new actors too, good to bring some fresh faces to the game. Everyone is doing a great job, superb acting, great story, just all around solid show. Make sure to watch Episode 2 to see the sickest werewolf transformation in history.
That was the question of the night, when I adjusted my preflop raise strategy to always consist of 3.5BB+1/limper. I recently asked for some advice on how to deal with preflop overbetting in loose live games. Anyone who has played live surely knows what I'm talking about, as it is a very common occurrence. Basically fish have evolved to open 8-10BB's on average to try and limit how many players actually call them. They're trying to "weed out the rift raft" as they often put it, as they only want good hands to call them. That way when they lose they dont feel bad about being sucked out on, cuz "hey, at least you had a good hand". I started doing it too, albeit only because I expected to get massive value out of inferior hands. But it just never worked out right. So I said fuck it and played like I would online.
I ended up running $200 up to $1100 in 6 hours. It was like nothing. Sure I got a few extra callers at times, but really nothing that made life difficult for me. And now I'm not investing 40BB's every fucking hand I play. I even got a few jabs when people were like "lol, why are you raising so small, this isnt like last night". The greatest was raising $8 utg and being told "wow I didnt put you on aces with such a small raise" after I stacked one guy. And then 5 hands later stacking someone again with 24s when I raised $7 in the CO (guy tried to slowplay me in the BB with AA). While it might seem silly to balance your range vs fish, they do sorta notice what you're doing a little bit. They dont really adjust their ranges vs you, they just adjust their calling frequency.
What I found really advantageous about using online betsizing is that it allowed mt to raise speculative hands preflop like suited connectors and all my PP's. I could never raise $20 utg with 44 previously, but $7? Sure. And it works out great that 6 people call because thats exactly what I want with 44 anyway. And if I have AK and flop top pair, chances are it's the best hand anyhow and most of the table will fold to a cbet, and the 1-2 people who call are dominated as usual. So getting the pot HU doesnt really seem to serve any great purpose, since their ranges are all garbage in the first place. Online isolation is much more relevant since you actually expect callers and limpers to have playable hands. You really arent happy with AK when you raise $8 vs a bunch of regs and get 3 callers. But live it's fuckin ez peezy, because there's really no threat other than blatant suckouts which are far and few between.
Ultimately, I just felt so much more comfortable, like I was playing online more or less. The SPR was always fitting, I wasnt overcommitted to hands, everything just clicked since I felt like I was in control of every hand I played. Going to keep up this strat for awhile and make sure I wasnt just running hot.
Had a PLO session today vs a bunch of donks, so I'm all like
and proceed to extract value by dissecting their ranges and putting them in tough spots to spew chips on weak draws. I have no idea what I'm doing
but thats ok, I can already feel the tides turning. Before I know it I run into a 70/50/5 player who is up 9 BI's at my table.
EZ game, just 3bet/4bet him with 130% of your range. I instantly run my stats up to 35/25/4, and felt like
Over the span of 3 hours my bankroll has magically dwindled 7 BI's, and all I can feel is
So like a navy seal, I remember my training. Just get your stats down to around 22/18/3 and pray the donk doesnt leave. Step into the shadows, and await your prey
In less than an hour I recover my 700BB's and finish up 3 after I stack my nemesis for a 500BB pot flush vs flush. He rage quits all my tables, even though he's still up several stacks, and I finish another session in the green.
I've been doing some financial soul searching after being inspired by wh00sel's blogs the last few months, and figured if he can pull the trigger and ditch the GTR for an econo-crapbox with his financial status, surely I can too. Right now I drive a 2012 Mustang GT and absolutely love it (save for the fact that I'm a tiny bit bored of it, but thats just my short attention span). I could flat out save 50% of all car expenses by down-sizing to something like the Fit. Problem is I dont think I've quite achieved the mental maturity yet to let go of the "fun car" part of me like wh00sel did and still require something that well, quite frankly looks good.
Thats where the speed3 comes in. Personally I think it's beautiful. It's a sports-hatch. The idea is to be the Honda Fit on steroids. This thing can actually keep up with my 5.0. Has perfectly respectable racing characteristics, and has more then enough power for daily driving since it's not like I race my car every day. It's cheaper, saving me maybe $100/month, and offers one critical piece of hardware that I've been sorely lacking with the stang, and that's cargo room. Now the mustang actually has a shockingly good amount of cargo space. I can fit 2 huge ass suitcases in the trunk for extended travel purposes, it has 2 surprisingly comfortable back seats, and the interior is very roomy and comfortable. The speed3 of course has 10x more of all of this.
Now I'm pretty heavily invested in the mustang. I did the tablet thing (I upgraded to a nexus 7 and cleaned up the cutlines, been meaning to shoot some new video of it), and was going to blow christmas funds on a new exhaust and engine/transmission tune. Plus there's all the money that I've spent so far maintaining the thing. I'm almost to the point where I'm kinda pot committed with it if you know what I mean, so my trade would probably be totally unnecessary. I mean I'd like the extra carrying capacity of the speed3, but I've managed this far without it, I'm sure I can continue.
But thats not the point. What do you guys think of this fucking car?
Well I havent learned how to beat PLO4 on my own yet. Much like in holdem, it seems my biggest difficulty is playing vs maniacs. I just get so irritated that I end up trying to play back at them and always run bad in the process. In PLO it's only magnified that much further. 80/50 players with 35% 3bet routinely own me. Seems like everyone is just gambling though. Cant tell you how many times I've seen 4 way allin's with just a bunch of low connector or suited cards. It's like 1 fish goes for a random 3bet, but it doesnt work out because the pot is then 4bet and 5bet back to him. At this point I guess he just says fuck it and recognizes everyone is about to go allin anyway so they all just ship on each other. I tried playing their game right back by relentlessly 3betting and 4betting, but they just call and I'll somehow fail to make even 1 pair and end up folding to a 1/3 pot bet on the turn or something stupid. I'm down about 30 buyins at the lowest limit of PLO possible, so I'll assume it's more me than them. I mean, it's one thing to lose to maniacs repeatedly, but without the fundamentals to beat normal fish or even thinking players, I'm just losing every hand I play.
So I'm going to sign up for DC for 3 days or a week or whatever free trial they offer and just see what it is I'm doing wrong to start. Hopefully that will be enough to plug my game.
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