RIP Ray

Lost a long-time friend the other day. Cancer sucks.

Reading this right now

In Focus, Psychologist and journalist Daniel Goleman, author of the #1 international bestsellerEmotional Intelligence, offers a groundbreaking look at today’s scarcest resource and the secret to high performance and fulfillment: attention.

Combining cutting-edge research with practical findings, Focus delves into the science of attention in all its varieties, presenting a long overdue discussion of this little-noticed and under-rated mental asset. In an era of unstoppable distractions, Goleman persuasively argues that now more than ever we must learn to sharpen focus if we are to survive in a complex world.

Goleman boils down attention research into a threesome: inner, other, and outer focus. Drawing on rich case studies from fields as diverse as competitive sports, education, the arts, and business, he shows why high-achievers need all three kinds of focus, and explains how those who rely on Smart Practices—mindfulness meditation, focused preparation and recovery, positive emotions and connections, and mental “prosthetics” that help them improve habits, add new skills, and sustain greatness—excel while others do not.

I need to put down the phone/tablet/laptop and FOCUS. Focus on losing some weight, on exercising, on eating healthier, on passing the Google certified trainer tests, etc. My mind is going full speed in 10 directions at once lately. A thought will come into my head, say, something I need to add to a to-do list at work, and as I'm looking for the list, the item slips my mind. I'm hoping this book will help with that, among other things. 

Tournament cash and Thanksgiving

Had a decent T-giving dinner. Food was great, but it was me, mom, brother, and sister-in-law. They ate and ran so they could go shopping. Unreal. So after they left I popped the cork on some wine. I happened upon Tisdale Cabernet at my local supermarket for $4 a bottle, and originally got it for cooking, but this wine is damned good! I've had $30 bottles that were not as good. Very smooth.

So Black Friday I played Julie's $100 deep stack tourney, and finished 4th out of 28. Got sucked out on the last hand when Luckbox Linda lived up to her name, shoving preflop with 7-8 suited against my AK suited. She got a flush. NH. I would have had a monster chip lead with about half the chips and 3 left. Ah well. Paid $300. I then sat at the $.25/.50 cash table for 30 minutes and raked in $40. Not bad.

So what did I do with my profit? Sunday after watching the Browns lose a game that should have been cake, I saw a Microsoft Surface tablet on Craigslist pretty cheap, and made the guy an offer. It was brand new in unopened box. For about 24 hours, I HATED this thing. I still wouldn't recommend it to the casual user, but I am getting the hang of it, and it's pretty slick in many ways. Gonna sell my Samsung laptop to cover the cost. That will leave me the Asus laptop, the Surface, Nexus 7, and a desktop I never touch. Wouldn't mind trading the Samsung, Nexus, and Surface all for a Yoga 11 or even Surface Pro 2. Very cool.

I think we finally got the fleas off the dogs! Had to dip them s few times and stay persistent with washing their bedding and spraying the floors.

Oh, and check out the pic of the Browns app for Win RT. I don't think those stats are accurate. Pierogies in the pic were for a potluck at Amvets for the OSU-MI game. Killer! And what a game that was!