my tool sense about framing is mostly related to the space between objects and how to fasten them together

You have no idea how much a framing carpenter makes in Austin. The good custom framers go to work in limousines with a 2nd chauffeur driving their pickup truck.

Look up depth of field, and movie camera lenses. It becomes quite technical. Also good to know about in still photography. There are limits to what can be achieved.

Austin has some great bbq places. As far as carpentry goes some of the bbq places in Austin (and elsewhere in Texas) look as though they will collapse in a heap within a day or two. So get your bbq to go is my advice.

jedi
redeye
depth of field measured in eff stop every time i choke down swear words

Once they develop a pinhole movie camera, worries about depth of field will be a thing of the past.

I'll try to return to 40 hours this week: 10 hours each on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.



I appreciate the insight, POWERlimp. The possibility that our inner universe is also vast is intriguing and gives me hope. Thanks for reading! As they say at the meetings: keep coming back.

Lenses and lensing are beyond my technical abilities, but I do appreciate the results when they look good.

Blocking used to be my nemesis, and something I would try to flummox and thwart at every turn, but that was back in high school when I was a defensive lineman on our football team.

we'll cross that bridge when we get there

SJ, are there any advantage slots you'd recommend for a slots noob who is going to Vegas for poker, but may occasionally want to try a different +EV game?

Hi Sheep. GL in LV!

Cash Falls can be fun.



Check out the 2nd column. See the blue frame around it? That's what you're looking for. When you spin, the coins marked 125, 100 (I think, as it's partially obscured) and 75 credits in column 2 will stay in place and the Q at the bottom of column 2 will disappear to be replaced, hopefully, with a coin with a credit value on it. Or more often you'll whiff and get junk there.

See those two yellow dots on the bottom of of the column? That means you'll get two spins to try to fill in the last coin on the bottom of column 2, where the Q is meow. If you do, then you'll win the value of the 125+100+75+the 4th coin value in credits.

However, whenever you see a blue frame in there, all the credits currently in the blue frame need to add up to 6x your cost in order to be worth it, as the odds of getting a coin in the last spot are worse than 6:1 (but the sought-after final coin should make up for the difference). So 125+100+75 is only 300 credits, so your spin cost needs to be 1/6th, or 50 credits or fewer. It would be a play for 50, but not for a single credit more. You can have 1, 2, or 3 tries left, depending on the number of little yellow dots at the bottom of the column. That doesn't matter. You'd like to hit on the first try, but if you don't, it's still a +EV play on the 2nd or 3rd attempts.

If there's no blue frame and the column is filled except for one spot, that means that the last person whiffed on that spin and everything in that column is going to reset on the next spin, so leave it alone.

Rarely, there's more than one column with a blue frame around it; in that case, you just add up every coin within however many blue-framed columns there are and see if it adds up to 6x or more the cost of your spin. If it does, then play it until you win and/or lose and it doesn't add up any more. It's only ever going to cost a few spins if you're unlucky.

On the Ultimate Fire Link version of Cash Falls, the coins inside the blue frame(s) only need to add up to 5x your cost, or if there's a Fire Link coin inside of a blue frame, play it no matter what, as that can be big money.

Check the bet amounts carefully, they can range form 50c to $150 per spin. Each bet amount gives you a different screen to check, so make sure you're checking every possibility on each machine.

Good Luck!

From the lack of updates, you might guess that I haven't returned to work. I'm still having some trouble getting out the door. When I get back to the casino, I will post about it.

Thanks so much for that write-up. I may give it a try spin.

The next movie I watched was The Red Shoes from 1948. Martin Scorsese picked it as one of his top 5 desert island films, and I vaguely recall other famous film auteurs being enamored with it, so I added it to the list.

Come to find out, the film is all about ballet, and I've always placed that genre on the same list with opera and NASCAR as Entertainment Forms That Don't Interest Me In the Slightest.

I mean, I have boundless respect for the incredibly talented and near-anorexic women and men who destroy their feet and toes, push themselves past the point of agony, are screamed at hourly by sadistic choreographers, live off fast food salaries, room together in slums and cheap motel dives, and eat bulk ramen and millet—when they eat anything at all—for their art, but all that dainty hopping and leaping and twirling to insipid chamber music just bores me stupid.

Instead of spurning it, I kind of fell in love with the movie pretty quickly. The plot has new and unknown composer Julian and poor little rich girl Vicky, both filled with boundless talent and potential, finding themselves thrown into a whirlwind chaos of high-stakes live performances, massive egos, and vicious public puncturing of same, within a famous ballet troop touring London, Paris and Monaco, filmed in beautiful color by co-directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.


Sure, it looks great, until you find yourself at the top of the stairs, completely covered in ticks.

The ballet performance within the movie is called The Red Shoes, based on a fairy tale by Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, about a vain girl who loves dancing so much that she skips her adopted mother's funeral to go to a ball and show off her fancy red shoes, after which she is cursed to always wear the red shoes and to never stop dancing.

The movie is analogous to the fairy tale, wherein Lermontov, the head of the ballet troop, plays the part of the red shoes to his dancers, bringing them great fame and accolades, but never allowing them to stop dancing, by seeing to it that they don't have lives outside of the troop. The dance, to Lermontov, is the be-all and end-all of life. This is what first attracts him to Vicky Page, the ballet ingenue, when she gives him the answer that he's looking for by turning his question back on him.


Also, Anton Walbrook does the single most elegant spit-take here that I've ever seen.

Speaking of elegant, many of the male roles here are played—shall we say—daintily.





Several of the male characters are quite probably gay, is what I'm saying, and it's encouraging to see them in a movie in 1948, and to find them not being mocked, or portrayed as villains. In that way, this movie was far ahead of its time. Mind you, these characters are often shallow, ego-driven and bitchy, but no more so than the straight supporting characters in the troop. Everyone is more or less a prima donna in this movie, with the lone exception being Vicky Page, who is of course the biggest talent in the bunch.

I found arguments online about Lermontov's sexuality, because he's openly jealous of Vicky and Julian's romantic relationship, and he ends up firing Julian over it, but I still believe that he's either gay or asexual. Lermontov covets Vicky because he's the red shoes, and he wants her to dance and only dance and to never have lovers or any other distractions.

After Julian gets fired, he confronts Lermontov and says "You're jealous of her." and Lermontov answers. "Yes, I am. But in a way that you will never understand." I didn't find that way to be amorous or romantic, but I could be wrong.

Finally, there's a 15 minute slice of the ballet performance in Act II, and it's just lovely to look at.





The filmmakers cheat quite a bit and do things with projections and camera tricks that could never be done on stage, but that's all right. We're meant to realize that we're looking at dazzling feats of movie magic for that time, and it works as a great and lavish combining of the stage and screen.

I did not expect to like this movie, but I was wrong about that. It's very well written and gorgeous to watch, and I would recommend it.

I think you are doing the right thing. Live poker was never meant to be turned into a factory job with a time clock.

I think that the prospect of jumping back in for a 10 hour shift was intimidating. Last night, I showed up at the casino late and picked up $100 from the poker room for last month's hours promotion, but I didn't play poker. Instead, I ran an early AM slot sweep.

Tonight, I'm going to shoot for a 3 hour poker session, then a 6 hour session tomorrow, then an 8 hour session Friday. That's the goal.

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 0 hours (promotional $ pickup)
+$100.00
MGM Springfield Slots: 4 hours
+$78.25

2024 Running Poker Total: 235.5 hours, +$1323.00
2024 Running Slot Total: 127 hours, +$5625.38

2024 Grand Total: 362.5 hours, +$6948.38

Baby steps at first, you got this friend

I finally put in 3 hours at the poker table. I had to quiet my thoughts in order to do it. I have what I call Hamlet Syndrome. My thoughts will often make an extraordinary case for inaction if I allow them free rein (free reign? could be either, really, although rein is the accepted noun. The former liberation allows for the latter subjugation).

How did I quiet my thoughts this time? I did not use a Zen Buddhist mantra; instead I used an obnoxious old Italian-American stereotype...Hey, shuddupa you face, huh?

I'm sorry about that, but it worked.

I will try for 6 hours of poker later today, then a day off Saturday, then 8 hours on Sunday.

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 3 hours
+$234.00
MGM Springfield Slots: 1.5 hours
(-$30.35)

2024 Running Poker Total: 238.5 hours, +$1557.00
2024 Running Slot Total: 128.5 hours, +$5595.03

2024 Grand Total: 367 hours, +$7152.03

Rolling Stone's 469th Greatest Album of All Time: Clandestino by Manu Chao (1998)

Clandestino is the debut album from Manu Chao, aka José Manuel Tomás Arturo Chao Ortega, a French/Spanish artist who paid his dues in several bands for over a decade before going solo in the late 90s. Chao recorded Clandestino as he toured around various locations throughout the world, using a laptop for capturing most of the album, a fairly impressive feat in 1998.

On the album, Chao sings in Spanish, French, English and Brazilian Portuguese. His English songs are my least favorite on the record, so my failure to connect with most of the album likely doesn't stem from my lack of foreign language skills.

I've mentioned the language thing before, and how when I'm stuck with just my native English, I try to shift my engagement with songs from other languages away from the lyrics and towards the music and the voice; well, I'm not qualified to judge whether or not Chao has a great voice, but I didn't love it.

Behind Chao's voice, the music of Clandestino represents the sounds and simple production values of the buskers and street musicians in Mexico, Central America and South America that Chao experienced throughout his travels, and one might be thankful that he went easy on the pan flute elements from some of those locations.



Like all the albums in this list, Clandestino is beloved by critics—otherwise, it wouldn't be here—the album also sold and charted well all over Europe. Two of the songs stood out for me. I liked "Luna y sol" for its energy.



And I liked "La vie à 2" for its cadence.



Since I've started this project, I've developed an enthusiasm for hearing all sorts of well-regarded music for the first time; unfortunately, with the exception of the above tracks, Clandestino just didn't do it for me. I didn't dislike it, but neither did I find a striking virtuosity in it, but that's a me problem. and your mileage may vary.

Rolling Stone Says:
[Clandestino] was a tribute to “clandestinos” everywhere: a derogatory term for undocumented migrants. Running on an internationalist platform of peace (and legalized pot), Chao was a digital busker (“a clown making too much dirty sound”), strumming his acoustic guitar as he moved effortlessly between languages and styles, singing with a playfully light touch as he made feel-good reggae rock for global nomads like himself.

Definitely a dude I'd like to have a beer with some day. And between you and I, I would probably fib and tell him that I like the whole album.

Manu Chao is incredibly known and respected in the Spanish/French speaking world ; back in the late 90s/early 2000s, you could not go to a backpacker joint (and especially a reggae bar) without the tunes of Manu Chao being spewing out of the speakers repeatedly a la Bob Marley Mano Negra (his punkish/ska/reggae prior to having a solo career), was equally known, albeit a bit less accessible. And yeah, by all accounts, Manu Chao is seemingly a positive fellow/fun to be around

Dubnjoy000, I thought of you when I was writing this, as I figured you'd be familiar with his stuff. Thank you for your insight! I appreciate you.

I think you were spot on Suited in your analysis : his voice is nothing to write home about, nor is his guitar playing, for that matter, and overall his songs are quite... simple and perhaps even monotone... But, and here again you hit the target, he was all about good vibes yo A sort of happening. And quite the entertainer. Singing of topics that directly spoke to folks, right, like combining the themes of the Rastas (Revolution, f**k Babylon, ganja smoking, solidarity etc.) with Latin America social issues (Zapatistas uprising, daily economical struggles etcetera etc.)

Manu Chao was a component of the world music effusion of the late 90s/early 2000s - now to what extent he was an instigator or a product of the movement, is debatable, although I would lean towards the former... - that exploded during the release of Clandestino. In Montreal, not only did a myriad of bands sing in French-English-Spanish a la Manu, but gypsy music, Italian solo artists, folk tunes, a fusion of hiphop-electronic-dub-ragga-ska-punk-tango-flamenco bands appeared out of nowhere This also transpired a little in the anglo-saxon world with bands like Thievery Corporation and projects like The Buddha Bar. But anyhow, Manu was definitely an integral part of this world music happening.

And thx for the kind words Suited and am rooting for you to come back strong at the poker tables friend ; GL

Thanks Dubnjoy000!

So far so good, but I'm not yet halfway through the session, so we'll see.