Haha I just bet against the Raptors today. I think it's hard to advance in the playoffs without a superstar, but seems like they've been crushing in the bubble. Should be a great series

Toronto all the way (TDOT resident all my life mostly). But Boston is dangerous Espec is Lowry don’t come back.


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A little late to the party but good luck!

Don’t sleep on the Celtics. +1 to the Raptors not having a superstar being a little problematic for their repeat hopes.

Culpability and Responsibility

Don't feel guilty. Don't feel guilty when you go on an absolute mind-boggling upswing and scoop in much more then a yearly average Canadian salary in a single month's time... Don't feel guilty when you feel that tingling warmth of that wave of happiness (finally) rush through your body... Don't feel guilty when you have the power to purchase whatever you fancy in a country that has seen poverty levels go beyond the 50% threshold... Don't feel guilty when you reach poker's apex, stare at the 1 million dollar first place, only to wane away and final2table bubble...

I will forever remember that moment where we were approaching the final level of day 3 with 17 left in the 5 mil guarantee... Despite my IMMENSE fatigue, I was nonetheless navigating an average+ stack ; and then I looked up at the board, stared at the final table payouts stemming from low 6 digits all the way up to 800k and then... And then I fracking frooze Something about achieving my last mission in the poker world felt off... "I am not ready for this" I heard myself admitting ; something about binking in this moment was just not what she wrote... And of course, even if my ICM equity was somewhere in the low 6 digits area, I found myself playing my worst poker of the year and perhaps my life

Guilt has been my lifelong friend. My companion. My shadow. To open the door to happiness and good fortune might seem like a trivial gesture to most, and yet, for some of us this breach is narrow af with little to no light piercing it. Ok, ok, I might be pushing this narrative too far, nevertheless, it did take me years to simply accept good fortune, you know

Of course, on the other side of the spectrum, we should take social responsibility for our ancestral heritage (most of the time racist, homophobic and sexist), our institutional roles, our participation in the consumerism rat race and our negative imprint on Mother Earth. The difference being that this existential responsibility is usually processed at a very young adult age while guilt manages to stay with you. Thankfully I have rid myself of must of it


Tbh, while I see the Raps advancing, this is a 55-45% toss up, me thinks. The line though certainly favours placing monies on the Celts, something I just can't bring myself to do ; I will thus wait out a favourable Raps line, bet on individual games or simply abstain myself, as betting against my heart is just... well, you know


Yeah man, so great to see the Raps have this kind of success after the dog days of yesteryears Lowry is day-to-day and with the extra 2 unexpected days he just got of rest, I think he will be just fine yo


Perhaps, and I see Tatum > Siakam. Nonetheless, there is something to be said about a balanced scoring with 5 players that averaged greater than 15 ppg in the regular season. Also, Haywood's absence is not something to frown upon, as outside of the Celt's top 5, the Raps will find a way to attack the 8 or so minutes distributed to each members of the bench (and lest not forget Kemba's less then stellar defence). And thx friend




+14.4k in 27h


Run good all

Beautiful words.

I keep staring at that pic wondering what it looks like inside. We really take for granted our living conditions. One day I hope to travel to gain a better appreciation of the world.


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September, The Plan of Attack

Much like it happened to be the case 3 months ago when my weekly RRs came to a halt (for a hiatus of 5 weeks), a certain dose of sadness crept in this morning upon awakening. A sentiment that was once associated to poker withdrawal in the previous quarterly, but that I can now safely assess as being the emotional funk caused by an existential change. Da pokerz has explicit addiction levels, must of which I faced when confronting my decade old tilt issues, but this quarterly blues - as we shall we call it - has more to do with a drastic alteration in my daily schedule : it is easier to fix a routine revolving around accumulating points as opposed as setting the strenuous task of producing a few chapters of a longstanding book, you know

Now here's the thing about fixing oneself with a forever-elusive grandiose project : procrastinating does not push aside the questions and doubts that keep creeping up Is this story worth writing? Or even worth reading? Should I be making public the personal details of friends and acquaintances? Should I be the main character in the story? If so, do I feel comfortable making my life an open book? If not, can the sleepy story of Dawson be appealing enough to readers without a central character to drive the narrative? So many questions underlined by a myriads of doubts...

Anyhow, the plan is uptick meditation to 3 hours daily (and more on certain days), study PLO at least an hour a week (got to get back in the lab, you know ), write 1-2 hours a day, grind 12-20h and lastly, maintain my quality time with L/her son/y la Negracita

This pic comes from an FB page of Lima pics and was selected for its originality, but yeah, Lima has a great deal of poverty with several neighbourhoods barely having access to running water or power. The inequality in Lima is such that you see barrios that are rich and offer all the first world commodities while millions of others live underneath poverty level Lima is nonetheless an amazing city with arguably the best food on the planet

Thx bro



-2k in 4h


Run good all

Is this story worth writing?

Yes

Would read. Go for it dude.

Definitely write your book!

And sadly raps look like they ain’t going to be the celts.

How bad was your tilt at it’s worse? And what’s your tilt now - like what do you do when you’re tilted?


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Urban Times

Looking back it is kinda ironic that for a fellow like myself that loves to dwell if not on the fringes of civilization at least in remote areas, that I ended up choosing a Metropolitan area of 15 mil to manoeuvre through a global pandemic, you know Of course, the inner-dialogue did not exactly go in the tune of "hey, let's lock ourself up in between the 4 walls of a balcon-less little flat for 5 months instead of hitting the open space in the Yukon", but was moreso a cumulation of events that initially saw myself wanting to plant roots in SA, meeting L, then being confined by the borders shutdown, up until now where we have not only 10-12k of daily COVID cases, but several coworkers of L that have become infected Oh well

Thx friends I happily broke through (and shattered) the writer's block In fact, I am pretty happy with what I put on paper this week - sorta speak, of course, as even a romantic soul like myself still prefers the convenience of a laptop as opposed to the ole pen and paper - and with the general direction of my book. But mainly leaving my doubts behind and putting forth the project has felt liberating yo

Ohhh man, how narratives change from game to game, right!?! Without OG and KLOE defying the laws of physics (and arguably teaming up for the 2nd most memorable shot of Raps history ), the story would of been of the crippling attempt at a title defence gone awry. Now, low and behold, we find ourselves looking back on game 2 and thinking "hey, we could be up 2-1 ". And to be fair, equity wise, I think the Raps might be ahead 1.6-1.4 in games ; game 1 was all Milwaukee's (or 90%+), game 2 Raps 70%+ (if Smart does not go Nuclear on them) and game 3 I also see the Raps 70%+ with refs trying to hand the Celts the game on 3 dubious calls. Anyhow...

I put 700$ on tomorrow's game for the Raps. For the record, I went from being up 2k in bball bets this year to now down 2k, so I might be jinxing us, but whatever, let's do this




-2.2k in 14h


Run good all

$700!


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Yup I know it is statistically silly, but when there was a few minutes left in game 3 (with the Celts up 2-0 in the series), I told myself whoever wins this game wins the series I had seen enuff of the Raps in games 2 and 3 to suddenly believe that a victory would signify a turn of tides

You know, I’ve read that the raps are actually favoured to win the series now, which seems crazy. Slight fave but nevertheless. And if they can make it to finals, meet and beat Kawhi there somehow....we can dream right???

On a diff note, if I may ask, when u started mediation, was it guided at first? Listening to a recording guiding you? If yes, when did you decide to switch to just doing it on your own? Just curious. GL!


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Man, that would be sooo amazing That said, the line has the Celts as slight favourites (just put 650$ on the Raps @ 2.04x and most podcasts favour Boston by a hair, but it is essentially a toss up

I will answer this more thoroughly in the upcoming days

Sorry about today but let’s hope!

Quiet Times in B.A.

I have nicely settled into this month's more tranquil (poker-wise) schedule yo In fact, if I initially felt bummed out on the first day, I have since been desperately trying to grasp the fleeting sands of time

On the poker front, the games have been decent enuff, but I have been running terribad with my mind just not on the grind Such that I might actually cut down to 12-15h my weekly hours in favour of spending more time on my book yo There was an absolute drooler yesterday sitting across 2 tables with 2000bbs ; while I did make 1.2k from him, it should of been 5k+ in our 90 minutes of tangling. But, alas, when villain 5bets shoves T4s and gets there, what can a fellow do, right

Spanish is FINALLY coming along ffs, to the extent that I can now (somewhat) comfortably speak on the phone I am still not great in group environments, but it should come along quite imminently... I just suck at languages Sure I speak 3 of them, but this is due to growing up with a non-English language as a mother tongue on a continent largely Anglo-Saxon (and English was a pain in the arse to learn), combine with the fact that I just need intellectual stimulation and that learning a new language >>>> Solvers as far as I am concerned

I have obviously been dedicating less time to my 2 + 2 threads, a trend that might just accentuate over time, as I prefer to dedicate my (diminishing since moving with L) availability for my longstanding book project that will actually provide a little of income, if minuscule. That said, both threads will stay alive. As far as my blogsite goes, I will put in a few hours this month, but mainly as a way to make a best of of my blog posts over the years (I wrote in French before blogging on this site), before eventually using it to promote my book and add some podcasts and other material to it. This will probably only be in 2021+ though...

post from travel thread : https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=622



Ehhhh, I didn't even go beyond the start of the 2nd quarter Man I hope they do well today, as if they get through Boston, they would be favourites to return to the finals

Nah, at first it was mainly breathing exercises which helped my concentration levels, but it would of definitely been faster if I did a Vipassana course earlier. That said, I did purchase a Vipassana book (in 2002) that did help with the basic breathing technique. In all honesty, what is initially important is the development of both awareness and concentration and once these are somewhat fine-tuned, a Vipassana retreat is the way to go. The latter takes you to magical places where you get this sense of "holy f**k, this is the SHYT I want this to happen all the time ", but without a prior practice of concentration and awareness, one might fall short of going deep enuff, even during the course of a 10 day retreat...




+1k in 8h


Run good all

Interesting reading about your language learning journey. Have you found that learning Spanish is coming along faster than English? I suppose so w/the romantic language links w/French, but I also think the brain gets better at learning each successive language beyond the first.

Phone and group settings in loud places give me a ton of problems too, I also struggle with films and series w/a lot of slang or rapid fire speaking. I enjoy learning languages, but my issue is that I get to a level where I'm just barely fluent (in French and now Spanish) and I lose interest in trying to fine tune things to get a really advanced level. I would enjoy learning Italian, Portuguese, or German and getting those from a 0/10 to a 7/10, but find it's such a boring grind to get my current languages from a 7/10 to a 9/10.

I hoped you saw game 6 yesterday - the wife and I were going nuts! Was truly one of the greatest games I ever seen live.

Was a bit disappointed with Nurse having Powell do an iso at the end of the first OT.

Nevertheless, gm 7! Proud of the Raps regardless what happens.


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A Bball Update

Man it has been savoury to eat out in restaurants again After almost 6 months of abstinence and in the midst of the peak of daily COVID cases, patios are anew open And peeps are much more slack as wells, which is a little concerning, as many acquaintances, coworkers, friends and family members of L are getting infected.

Our apartment is coming along sweetly with the additional accessories of plants, paintings, a new couch, tv, curtains. We still do not have access to the pool, gym, hot tub or terraza, but it should be within a month, me thinks. And I presume that sometime in October we will be able to FINALLY make it to Tigre

MAN OH MAN that was COMPLETELY effing exhilarating Best game ever in Raps history outside of game 7 vs Phily last year

Yeah, that was strange. I can understand the iso given they want to run down the clock, but why not KLOE... The only reason I can think of, is that Powell had Kemba on him and was thus guaranteed to not be blocked/have a clean elevation look of 30-35% equity without any negative turnover equity...

Also, putting in Powell in there as opposed to Ibaka was quite the gambool-gambool after Norm had shown nothing in the game thus far, but 15 points in both overtimes was the result, so I guess Nurse knows something we don't... And what about rolling the dice with OG at the 5 (even if Theis got easy dunks). I hope Gasol's time is again reduced in game 7 and that they ride the smallball game more extensively yo ; we got this

Yeah, it has been an interesting linguistic journey tbh, starting from the moment I showed up on the steps of my English elementary school at the age of 5 with my vocabulary limited to the usage of a single word ("no") It was very tough to pick up the language. In fact, I was not comfortable until the age of 10-11 where I eventually became the top male student of my class - that girl was just too nerdy - and was only saved in prior years for being the strongest in Math (my teacher wanted to fail me in grade 1). Coming from a francophone family, I then went to a French highschool where I once again, alas, found myself behind, but this time in French classes (my weakest by far). I did manage to eventually become average throughout HS/Cegep until I decided to study Literature in Uni, AKA my weakest subject

A ton of effort - AKA hundreds of books later and thousands of hours of writing - saw me go from an average Uni student to a str8 A's one

In my early 20s, I moved to Western (and eventually Northern) Canada, but it wasn't until I started blogging over here on 2 + 2 and switched to also reading in English that it reached a literary level. And Spanish has been very slow man. But much like yourself that has chosen Latin America as his home, it will definitely ineluctably come along yo Nonetheless, I still don't have a knack for languages for someone that loves to learn ; if I understand correctly, we are very similar in our learning curves, even if the bumps are not exactly in the same areas




-200$ in 10h


Run good all

Moment of truth! I’m hoping Pascal finally plays like himself in a monumental game 7.

Forgive my ignorance, what’s a tigre?


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Hoping the Clippers don't screw up tonight so that we can see an all LA WCF

Thoughts on Celtics-Heat?

Wow, I can't believe what I am seeing That said, I did take some pleasure in seeing Kahwi fail Not a bunch, mind you, as I still would take more pleasure in seeing him succeed as I don't hold a grudge, but man oh MAN, imagine if he was still with the Raps

I put 800$ on Boston for the series and 300$ on game 1, but I mean, I don't know anymore... this bubble dynamic is so strange and unpredictable

Not the desired results, but still an amazing 2 years yo I have confidence in Pascal for the upcoming years, but am concerned about losing Masai tbh

It is a place nearby with remote islands where you can rent some rustic cabins ; it will be our first getaway adventure


+3.2k in 5h

Tigre sounds nice, hope you get to do it soon.

Raps broke my heart that day, but still proud of them. Had Kawhi stayed, I think we would’ve repeated. I was so angry at Siakam that series, but have since started to realize that a lot of the blame should be on Nurse as well for his performance. I noticed a lot of iso in the block plays for him that would just lead him into multiple defenders in the paint...surely a coach should adjust this to get him in better spots? Anyways the future is bright I hope, and we need to keep him, with Nurse, as well as Masai. Pascal is def a perfect number 2 option.

I’m pleasantly surprised that Kawhi lost. But still have love for him and now that he didn’t repeat, I wish him success lol.

I think the Miami Boston series is going to be tight. Won’t be surprised if either team wins, and going 7 seems likely. Don’t have a personal preference at this point. I’d love to see Lebron get his 4th though while he still can.


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