On Happiness and Poker

There is this assumption amongst the mid-highstakes community that playing poker professionally cannot lead to a balanced and fulfilling lifestlye in the long run ; I want to be the devil's advocate today.

Because these proponents (AKA, pretty much everyone) have offered a substantial (and backed) amount of feedback arguing for the latter, no use to look into that side of the argument furthermore. Right... think depression. Lack of purpose. Selfish and cynical endeavour. Unhealthy lifestyle. Etcetera. Etc. But I feel that it has become too much of a trend to simply state "poker = no good" versus what immense benefits that I have got from the game. I mean, in simple EV terms and seen strictly through an individual and egotistical spectrum, yes, the positive clearly outweighs the negative.

First of all, my personal situation is quite unique, in the sense that I am single. I have no kids. I am more nomadic than sedentary (very uncommon, especially in your 40s...). I have a clear rebellious nature (quit university, care immensely for my freedom). I value travelling over the benefits of settling down. My previous career was pretty capped financially (being a chef), given that I dropped out of Uni. I do not have the normal vices associated with the poker realm (alcohol, balla, degeneracy etc.). All this being said, poker has provided tremendously for me. In terms of flexibility of schedule, money (the retirement monies/investments are piling up real fast) and general outlook (accepting wisely variance, randomness etc.). Of course, I am well versed in terms of how negative of a realm the poker world can be (god I would hate to be a live grinder spending that much time in casinos...), but I cannot lie and pretend that I have not gained tremendously from the game... F**k no, it gave me the opportunity to live the struggling writer's lifestyle without, you know, struggling




Soooo, you guys notice the gap in between 160kms over and 155kms where it is henceforth labelled excessive speeding... I mean, it is a TITANIC gulf, going from 5 to 10 points deducted So you will not see me go over 159kms/h ever again in La Belle Province +5.3k in 32h online and +800$ in 5h live


Run good all

Didn't realize you had a thread! Only read a few of the posts so far, but I'm honestly a big fan of the way you're formatting it haha. Definitely going to do the thread grind when I have some free time next week, gl at the tables

Nice write up the last one. I would tend to think that most in my opinion who take up poker are the guys who have bit of rebellious nature in them. That being said so are most degens. So it isn't surpsring that many poker players complain about or are being accused of having an unbalanced lifestyle. The very few who are non degenerative and are good at poker make it quite well.

So is the LA belle province the same as the one portrayed in godless? It's a Netflix series. Check it out though. It's quite well made.

Old Man Coffee

Always interesting to catch up with friends after a few years... this time, it was an English buddy (from the UK). We met back in our early 20s in Lake Louise when doing mushrooms 3 times a week was standard, as was partying until the end of times, obviously Anyhow, back in 1999 our friend was travelling with a buddy of his (also English) and Canada happened to be the first stop on what was meant to be years of travelling... until an infamous week happened, that is...

This French Canadian chick was in her early 30s (notably older than most peeps in that ski town), but still hot as frack and horny as can be on that specific hormonal calendar week... She was about to skip town to return to Montreal and wanted to get a little action before leaving, you know... So anyways, all of us guys tuned in on the mesmerizing hormones, obviously, smelled the horniness miles away and were in competition for some action-action Our friend won the Darwinist lotto - survival of the fittest yo or a little natural selection action people -, hooked up for a few days, had his fun, she hit the road, presumably never to be seen again until... he received a phone call the following month and... yep, you guessed it : nature had followed its course and a new baby was going to be born out of pure ski town lust with a Dad that speaks no French (till this day) and a mom that comprehends bits and pieces of the English language

Anyhow, fast forward 20 years later, and his hair is completely white, he has 3 kids, is on his second marriage, lives in Montreal (office) and Sutton (house) and is the CEO of his own startup company (products for growing weed and worth almost 8 digits), go figure I don't know... we have become old... Not sure how it has happened, but we have become f**king old

Speaking of which, I noticed that I get mistaken for an OMC @ The Playground, which is utterly , but nonetheless something I used to my advantage yesterday by manipulating my perceived ranges in the 220$ 6 handed MTT...

Villain is low stakes pro/semi pro, is aggressive af, competent yet completely unbalanced, and has recently tried to triple-barrel bluff me on 910A (I called with Q9 and would of called a 3x shove on the river ; yup, it was that obviously of a bad polarized bluff ). He views me as tight (no cards to work with), has respected my 3bets thus far and has folded to what he views to be my nitty range.

So I have been card dead as frack, (66 is the best hand I have seen, followed by KQo and A7s in 3h ), yet I have made it through half the field, mainly by bluffing and bluff-catching in very exploitative (and obvious) spots. I find myself above average in chips when I look down at A4 OTB and decide to 3bet his EP open. He calls. Flop comes 48J and we both check, turn brings the J and we check again, river is the 2 and villain bets 60% pot and I jam for 3.8x. He gets up, is visibly shaken, mutters to himself, tanks for 2 minutes

Ehhhh, I mean, my perceived image was perfect. My blockers, very nutted. The sizing, meaningful. Table image, great, as mentioned above. And I do not have many bluffs in my perceived range (he was muttering AK gone crazy), but... the narrative just does not add up... In his shoes and when facing a rec player, I often fail to factor in the spew element... (he viewed me as a rec and definitely had too much of an ego to imagine I could be using blockers to attack his capped range...). After I flipped over the weaker 2 pairs, he celebrated/cheering like no tomorrow +2.4k online in 3h, -800$ live in 4h Dropped 600$ in 2-5 PLO in 1h before the tourney ; my PLO game is rusty af


Run good all

Thoughts 101

Even after going at it fairly hard in the virtual world this WE (by my standards, which meant 8 tabling and 5-6 of them being 400z tables), I still was ranked 2nd in the rakerace when Monday arrived. And while the 1st place is definitely not out of reach, it is just not worth the hassle for what would amount to an extra 1k in bonus. Also spent an extra hour in bed today questioning the purpose of getting up and grinding... I mean, the extra monies does not add any positive change whatsoever to my life (all the extra goes into the retirement plan, which is already healthy...) and the grind seems to sway me away from other priorities... On the other hand, I am wired like this and discipline, being structured and goal-orientateddoes do bring a certain direction in my life, so...

Thinking about going to purchase some more cryptos... Nothing significant, but something like 5k+ to take fully advantage of this - yet another - overall downswing. I would need to make it to Montreal though, as the closest BTC ATM location has exorbitant fees, so might go play some 2-5 (perhaps 5-10 will be running...) at the Casino de Montreal next week... It all depends on my mood and if BTC is still under 8-9k next week...

Ok, as much as I have criticized the low-stakes live pros in this thread, I do need to specify that the limited amount of highstakes pros that I have met, have left a much - like a lot more - better impression. They seem more humble. Smarter. With a better grasp on, you know, life and stuff They do not need to prove as much to the world/others, me thinks... Anyhow, was listening to the chip race today (a UK poker podcast) and Adam Owens was one of the guests (has a few million in MTT cashes, but mainly a mix game specialist). And he sounded really familiar to me, until it all came back : he was sitting on my right on Day 2 of the Party Millions and we engaged in a lengthy conversation. The dude lives in Mexico City, has a Latina gf and has a similar nomadic lifestyle to myself (minus probably the early 20s hippie days of hitchhiking/sleeping in parks ). Anyhow, a really nice fellow, really solid player and his bustout hand was awe inspiring in the sense that it was a really creative and exploitative line vs an OMC capped range... but mainly, encounters like these make me want to dip more into the live MTT highstakes community (still a newbie on the scene, obviously).


Thx bro. I actually have quite a few threads (2 active, the other being in the travel section) and like you soon find out if you follow this thread on a regular basis, I am a big fan of wall of texts GL in scoop friend


I loved Godless, notably the villain, the dark tone and the final battle, which is as epic as can be No, La Belle Province is the nickname for the province of Quebec in Canada. Not sure if La Belle is a fictional town in Godless, but it takes place in Colorado.

+2.3k in 11h online, -800$ in 4h live this week


Run good all

Dowwwnnn

Am tired... This sticky mental depressive fatigue made the grind that much less inspiring this week (and also decreased the drive to learn Spanish)... I still managed to put in the required volume, the studying, the results, but the mojo was just lacking... When June comes rolling around, I will look into making some trips, adding more social activities, spending more time away from the grind. I mean, I am just grinding 30h/week, studying 4-5h/week, but when factoring in 15h of meditation and introverted activities like reading/watching movies, it leaves little time to go for walks in nature here, meeting new people (something I failed to do thus far), meeting women etc. I think lowering my volume to 25h weekly in June would be a good idea... Also, if you guys remember, our goal was 25k in La Belle Province and we are already at 17.2k (excluding Party Millions) with an additional 5k in RB coming soon, so we basically have already reached that sum (this said, 25k was a very low bar, given that my winrate has doubled since last year ).

Nevertheless, I am not sure how the online scenery will look like in 2019 and have hence decided to make poker my priority this year (will wait until next year before doing an extended meditation retreat). Anyhow, time to rest now.




Pic taken last Monday on top of Mont Royal, chilling in the sun +6k online in 17h, -800$ live in 4h


Run good all

Digital Monies

I bought all my initial cryptos (bitcoin and mainly ethereum) back in mid-November 2017, where the BTC price was just about at the same level as right now. But despite this, I managed a significant enough ROI through trading, most notably investing heavier in ETH than BTC and then selling a good chunk of it when it crossed the 1k line (now at 580$) ; followed by investing in Neo and Litecoin when both were pretty cheap (40$ and 100$ respectively), and then selling off the majority of my LTC before the fork @ 300$ (now at 120$) ; and most recently, by investing north of 10k in Tron when it was @ 4cents (now at 7 pennies) and watching the latter climb while the rest of the market declined I sold off some Tron yesterday, but am holding on to the rest until mid-June, just before they leave the ETH blockchain

I mean, all things considered and when factoring in the time spent reading/researching about crypto news, I could of probably made double the sum simply grinding poker. But it has been fun. Eye-opening. And if the market becomes bullish again like I expect it to do, the profits will obviously multiply pretty fast, yo

Still am debating on purchasing more cryptos or not... Probably will, as I have money lying around doing nothing, I have already invested significantly in traditional platforms and have decided against buying a van this summer... So probably will hit Montreal next week, me thinks, and go find a cheapish BTC ATM...




+7.7k in 20h online this week, -800$ live


Run good all

Karma Sklanskys

Ok, I think the plan is to go to Mont Tremblant next week (or somewhere in the vicinity...), if only to hit the road a little bit... and then check out Val D'Or and Rouyn Nouranda the following week, which is more in the region of a 3-4 day trip. I will bring along my monitor, so will still be grinding a few hours day, but just to hit the road will feel good. I mean, I do miss having a gf and all and am still striving to meet a lady in 2019, but I am a much happier lad when I am on the road, so perhaps I will not settle down anytime soon... TBD

I think that if it was not already made obvious ITT, a 9-5 job would be the end of me Being stuck within an imposed schedule, 4 walls, a Monday-Friday timeframe, the same fracking faces everyday, the neverending gossiping, daydreaming of gtfo to sunnier horizons... I mean, I am in the middle of nowhere grinding 4-5h a day, and this routine is fracking getting to me I am not sure to what extent taking monies away from other peeps acts directly upon us in a karmic sorta way... It sure feels like it does this week, especially being up 11k and feeling some sort of guilt of always scooping the monies




+11.2k in 27h online, -800$ live


Run good all

Poker as a Perceived Livelihood

Being considered an outsider in pretty much everything I do (being a nomad, tattooed af, a serious meditator, having the Arctic as a home and playing poker for a living), folks have come to expect something anti-conformist to come out of my mouth Or at least for me to walk upon a different path, share divergent opinions (from theirs) etcetera etc. But given that I do choose to dwell in areas/countries where peeps are (culturally) different/more open-minded (I do not choose to spend a lot of time in suburban middle-America for instance ), my livelihood does not get generally frowned upon. Sure, folks are usually a bit surprised when I say I play poker for a living, but for the most part, it opens up new avenues of discussion (everyone knows a little something-something about poker ), entices curiosity and usually provokes positive reactions.

Nevertheless, at this point of my life, I usually avoid mentioning how much I make or gamble on a daily/weekly basis to people that are not close friends/family. It will only lead to potential conflict. Envy. Misunderstanding. Or even plain despise. As, if I remain but an upper-midstakes player in the poker community - albeit a crusher -, I happen to find myself in the top 1-2% in Canada in terms of salary. Furthermore, when you convert an elite first world success into 2nd world terms (like when speaking to my Mexican teacher today), or even 3rd world (peeps in the Phils or South-East-Asia), it creates an unnecessary gulf in between you and the other person.

I am usually pretty good at distinguishing which of my friends can be empathic with the kinda monetary swings that I go through, but I think that I should not of opened up as much about my finances with my Spanish teacher (I told her how I took a 3k hit this morning in 2h, only to conclude with the fact that I made 13k last week ). But anyways, she was pretty cool about it, told me how her and her Portugese bf have been tighter financially for 2 years now (as opposed to before in her life with her other bf and family prior to this) and how this has impacted her happiness level. But it is something I took note of after the course, and will look to avoid in the future.




-2.6k in 5h this week


Run good all

Master of Muppets

Why is it that even though I have already reached my monetary goal in Quebec in half of the allocated time, I am still clicking my life away at the virtual tables...

Click, click, CLICK

Captivated, sedated, mesmerized... a zombie firing away, trying by all means to reach the next goal...

Click, clickity, CLICK...Click, clickity, CLICK

You see, they get you with their promotions, their bonuses, their racerakes, forever sucking you into the virtual screen, clicking away up to the next finish line... The problem is, even if you arrive at a new destination and move up in levels, the end boss is nowhere to be seen...

Click, click, CLICK

Perhaps he is the puppet master after all, manipulating you from above like the victimized little fracking muppet that you are

Click, clickity, CLICK...Click, clickity, CLICK

Something's gotta give... Either I power down the CPU or smash the mouse in a million fracking fragments, but something has got to give...

Click, click, CLICK




-2.5k in 10h this week


Peace

You're in your 40s? What happened, man

I thought you're like very late 20s to 32 range

Sweet Time

Time happened bro. And the problem with time is that not only is it fleeting af, but when you look (figuratively) in the mirror (or at the ageing faces of your highschool-Uni, like has been the case in Montreal) and try to momentarily grasp the its passage by asking yourself "what happened, how did I get so freaking old... ", a clueless and blank facial expression stares back at you Our past is fragmented in bits and pieces incapable of being sewed back together to recreate a sorta of narrative, given that our ageing brain cells just fracking die along with the memories associated with them . Don't get old friend Disclaimer :

Have you been following this thread/my travel blog for a while? Anyhow, I started travelling at the young age of 19, hit the road permanently at the age of 22 and it wasn't until the ripe age of 28-29 that I got into poker. It then took me 4 years to start playing professionally, and only started blogging on 2+2 about 4 years ago. But anyhow, I am at a point now in my life/poker career, where I am putting aside a substantial amount of money for my retirement, am looking to focus on writing, meditation and volunteer work post my grinding years and am also trying to make up for all those drinking years that slowed down my spiritual and poker playing growth

Speaking of the passage of time, it was much funner to come back for a visit for a couple of weeks in my 20s, as it meant a few nights of festivities which always ended up with the company of a pretty female friend In my 30s, even if less of my female friends were single, our social circle was still substantial enough to provide one to make out with Those days have unfortunately died off Need to find me a gf soon In Europe folks, in Europe it will be




+100$ in 15h


Run good all

Thank you so much for dedicating a whole post to me! ;3

There's yours and a couple of more really good PG&C threads on 2+2 that I don't normally visit, it's easier to dumb down, to read people who've taken over ValentjNN thread and 3rd person post there. However, 2+2 is decent. There's stuff to learn, if you're vigilant enough to dig in once a clue has been found

No idea if the motivation is real and / or will last

But thinking about the thing about girls you said

If we swapped bodies, for example, you'd own the dating as me. You'd do. You'd be like "snap gets a ride to the capital in the middle of the night" "snap pulls a fairly hot girl at the club" "snap turns my measly bankroll into a few dozens of thousands" "life solved 2.0" all it takes is being there and a non-moron in control who has the experience, right mindset and the courage to do all those things

Also, my body is easily trainable, you'd do 8km 35min runs in training in no time and have high strength stats just for the icing

Tick-Tock... Tik-Toc

Let's... call it... a month, shall we I am tired, losing tilts me while winning no longer brings emotional satisfaction Mentally, it has become a lose-lose game when factoring in my exhausted state of mind... Of course, clearing 28k in 1 month opens up a ton of eventual avenues, right, like travelling freely, spending nonchalantly, living a good quality life... But believe me, you fail to see the latter when you fully immerse yourself in the grind

Not sure to what extent the blame falls on my middle-aged 41 years old brain , but looking back a few years at periods where I would grind some heavy virtual volume, they all seem to ultimately lead to the same depressive/anxiety symptoms... Yet I would put in more hours then (think 40-50h/week, albeit playing lower stakes, which also has a significant impact, me thinks...). I guess this all but makes the transition to mid-highstakes live MTTs all that more important That, and putting enough aside for retirement, which - self indulging pat on my back -, I have been an end BOSS in that area yo




+2k in 18h this week ; +28.3k in 142h this month


Will be looking to establish a milder schedule for the month of June, one that permits more life activities yo


Run good all

Sick results, crushin'!

Yeah, defo', as a human (as opposed to, well, bot) you need that transition into using money good and enjoying life and getting back to normal and not tired

This was beautiful

No problem bro, happy with the interraction, thx for following

This has been on mind quite a lot lately... I am following a PG & C about this now turning pro in Australia that definitely has your standard leaks for a pro wannabe in his early 20s (arrogance, bad BR management, lack of discipline etc.), yet seems to possess a decent enough amount of skill, determination and some creative exploitative lines. His chances of succeeding are perhaps in the 10-35% range, me thinks (mainly due to terribad BR management and tilt issues that are holding him back and will probably be his downfall...), yet a wave of 2 + 2 reg posters have flooded his thread, marking him as drawing dead

At first, the reg comments were based on constructive criticism and while the latter remained a little as his blog become more dynamic (in terms of active posts), peeps just gathered to watch the train wreck happen. Seemingly hoping for it. I get it. That's what they want. Because of insecurities. Negative emotions. But mainly immaturity, they want to witness someone dive head first in the f**king gravel Thankfully, for most of us, when we get older and benefit from more inner peace, we'd rather see others succeed


Perhaps a little, yes. But such is the conundrum that everyone faces when getting older : you possess more wisdom, yet less physical capacities... If only I could go back, right, with the present knowledge... Or, as seen through the poker prism, if only we can go back to the Moneymaker years as GTO fracking crushing bots

When we are young, we feel immortal, are less inclined to feel vulnerable or be (constantly) subjected to the notion of impermanence ; when you get older, most of us jump on every (limited) opportunities like picking up women (it was soooo easy in my 20s, as I was definitely considered quite handsome), staying (relatively) in shape (gone is immortality ) and poker has only been this easy for me for the past 2 years (it took 12 years to get here, most of these non-sober ).

Living in a third country (Philippines and Vietnam) is quite eye opening for taking chances : life is so fracking vulnerable over there, that you just grab every opportunity that you can One day you are alive and healthy, the next one you are dead, your neck hanging from an electrical wire (in Bohol, a young father in a jeepney). Or jumping to certain death with your daughter (a mom in Argao that could no longer support her child). I have never experienced this form of poverty directly (deliberately sleeping under bridges because you do not believe in modern consumerism does not count ), but you do learn from the exposure.


Yeah man, I always push myself to succeed then burn myself out (somewhat), then take a break. Rinse-repeat.


Thx bro, I always appreciate your comments/compliments




+2.6k in 18h this week


Run good all




Run good all

Solid update. Really appreciate the effort you put in to answer questions. Could you link me to the Australian wanting to go pro thread.

In the Books

Ok, today is day #2 of no poker grinding. Like nada. Zilch. Not even 1 fracking hand. A last bluff A triple-barrel/we-are-conquering-the-world desperate line Or a ehhhh-I-have-the-nuts-/I-will-time-out-and-pretend-I-have-nothing typical weak reg move Nope. Not even checking my account balance, yo What I will do though, is go purchase 2.5k of BTC, head back up north to spend time with my folks and establish a rough schedule for the month of June

Alright, so the plan is to aim for 22-28h/weekly of grinding, maintain the 1h of poker studying (3h for Spanish, even if the mastering of the latter is increasing by infinitesimal increments ). The deducted hours from the grind will be redirected towards social stuff and 1-2h of additional writing (a chapter for my novel and finishing that ayahuasca medium article). Not much live poker will be played until I head out west (where I will actively seeking a deepstack tournament event and check out the new casino in Vancouver), but there is a repeat of that 330$ PLO Reentry MTT at the end of the month which I will obviously bink (ehhhh, my hendon mob still needs a lot of attention ).


Sure man, here it is : https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...goals-1703641/

For the record, I rated that thread 5 stars as it is entertaining af and my favourite PG & C read presently... but for peculiar reasons. I took a liking in OP (him coming from the restaurant industry and wanting something better for himself. And also dating an Asian chick ) and hope he will succeed ; this said, the dynamic of him completely ignoring well thought out advice from (some) posters and the narrative of OP-is-a-completely-drawing-dead/is-an-absolute-degen from some lol posters is comical (and contributes even moreso to the entertainment factor ). Like I said, there are some insightful posters in that thread (Alvarita comes to mind with his always insightful outlooks ), then a few over the top poker-is-dead/you-can-never-beat-lowstakes-for-10bbs/h gloom and doom lol posters I mean, there are much better (worse) threads to be criticized for their content of degeneracy (these posters have apparently not checked out some of the travel threads of grinders living in South-East Asia ). Also of note, in the middle of the journey, an absolute cringe-worthy misogynic tangent of women-are-out-to-suck-out-your-monies/masculinity digressive rant is suddenly introduced




Thought of getting this tattoo on my arm at one point, but I think I am but tattooed out at this point


Peace

Forks

Day #3. Of nothing. I will engage one of two paths tomorrow : either head 500kms north as planned and visit 4 towns, a national park, go hiking, do some writing and grind a little... or close my eyes in silent retreat for 3 days and meditate for 24h (8h/day)... I will see where I'm in the morning and take it from there

Just sold all of my trons (for BCH and NEO) which netted me north of 50% ROI in a 6 week period Not too bad, not too bad indeed yo Crypto trading has been a fun adventure and I also opened a bank account last month to trade in stock market, which I have yet to touch.

Been thinking a lot about that special 23 year old Peruvian chick that I met in Chiclayo back in April... That pretty kindred soul with her exquisite smile and eyes big like the world... And all that sexiness gently tucked behind her slightly shy facade... Part of me wants to go back this winter, spend a month travelling with her during her Uni vacation... But I don't know, I seem held back by our age gap and the social taboos implied (moreso here in Canada, not so much in Peru...).

Will be hanging out with my ex (ex, ex, ex...) next Friday. We have not seen each other in 11 years 11 years that have left her slim silhouette idem and ageless body as luscious as can be... While yours truly has visible signs of the wear and tear (of an old grinder ) upon his face... like white whiskers scattered across his beard and traces of substance abuse through the shapes of facial wrinkles... And lest not forget a belly that has rounded up with the years ... Anyhow, we were together for 4 years from age 20-24, 4 years that saw us hit the road for Lake Louise, B.C. and Mexico from where we hitched up to Dawson. Our relationship would end there, me preserving a nomadic lifestyle/immersing myself into the Yukon life, her meeting her present bf/father of her child and moving with him to Toronto. Ironically, her bf was 41 at the time, her 24, pretty similar to my present situation with that lovely Peruvian woman down south...




+2.6k in 17h this week


Run good all

Annihilation (AKA digressive thoughts inspired by the movie...)

Self vs self. In a battle of who's who. But mainly, of who comes out the victor...

Depression is that line just beyond the threshold of tolerable pain that once crossed, we scream out "no more, NO F**KING MORE ". And where it is (almost) more rational to annihilate oneself then to go on living. Depression is the dawn of the unbearable.

I have stared in the face of depression. Analyzed it. Observed it. Hell, even danced with it, hand in hand, like a hopeless cheerful chap But once you let go of your partner, you free yourself of your depressive self, it becomes a fracking liberating one-step rhumba yo




+2.1k in 5h this week


Given that it is raining in the outside world, I will postpone my trip until next week and engage in a 3 day retreat, 8h of meditation instead. See u all in 3 days yo

Peace

Inside-Out

Ehhhh, as proven to me every single time I dive deep into my interiors, there is so much shyt down there Thankfully though, this last inward journey of mine did cleanse some % of it - albeit infinitesimal af -, and have thus come out fresher I called it quits after 2 days and 15h of meditation as I felt sufficiently refreshed enough for the outside world and, of course, the grind

Managed to put in 6h online today, which is a clear testament of my refreshed mind In fact, I don't recall many 6h virtual days in the past year...

Now that I have brushed some of that mental fatigue that was clouding my life outlook, I feel positive once again about the rest of my stay in La Belle Province Stuff like next week's trip, meeting up with some friends and spending some time outdoors, has become exciting again ; funny how a few hours spent inwards changes, you know, the outwards perspective




+3.4k in 11h


Run good all

Known and Unknown Parts

I have criticized Anthony Bourdain severely enough ITT for the detrimental misogyny and homophobia influence that was left behind in the kitchen world by Kitchen Confidential... Perhaps it was narrow minded of me to solely focus on old literature that might not be quite representative of the train of thought of the recent author... or perhaps I am given into some sentimental crap now that the news of his suicide has hit the public eye... Regardless : as an ex fellow cook, traveller, grudge music lover, rebel, liberal, lost soul and nomad, I want to pay my respects today ; RIP bro. In the end, it's all about luv, right And sometimes pain and death

Saw my ex gf today ; hung out, caught up on lost times after 11 fleeting years had gone by and darn, how come she is sooooooo fracking hot How come she still has the same exquisite eloquence of back when we were 20, of our first meeting in a grudge alternative bar called Le Bleu est Noir, when we stepped outside to smoke some ganja, engaged in a kindred conversation that would naturally lead to a 5 year relationship...



-2.6k in 90 minutes today, +800 in 13h this week


Peace

Wanderlust

I have a 72 year old meditator buddy that spends his winters in Nepal in a small town just by the meditation centre. He basically travelled all his life. Going from a biker trafficking substances at the US of A Detroit border (back in his 20s), to working for Greenpeace on the Rainbow Warrior boat, to still riding bikes across Canada in his 60s, to now travelling to different buddhist countries in his twilight days. Moral of the story : I see myself eventually following a similar nomadic path and thus never settling down ; I am just not fit for a sedentary lifestyle of spending most of my days in the same fracking town, seeing the same fracking faces everyday, hearing the same fracking language spoken day in and day out Of course, relationships are harder to come by when always on the move, yet who doesn't luv some of that single-man's-adventurous-mulit-partner-lust

My buddies will be coming camping over at my place at the end of the month, so I will need to put in some decent volume next week to reach June's RB goals, yo So probably aiming for 28h or so, which will be executed from the inside of different hotels, as I will finally be on the road again homies




+1.9k in 18h this week


Run good all

I have a few friends like that, and I always wonder how they do it financially.

I mean i know they do the travel dirt cheap utilize hostels/friends/family approach but still...I just did 5 days vacationing in the same state and spent about $1500.

Granted i was spoiling myself but still...no idea how they do it.