Someday

How well does Rob Thomas exactly portray what I really feel?

...And maybe someday we’ll figure all this out
Try to put an end to all our doubt
Try to find a way to make things better now that
Maybe someday we’ll live our lives out loud
We’ll be better off somehow, someday...



Lyrics: Someday


About the things of getting better someday somehow.. :). Doesn't work that way.

For starters define exactly what a better life means for you. And then define when you want that someday to be exactly (1 month, 1 year, 5 years from now?).
Next, need to come up with a realistic plan to achieve the "better life". And then work towards it. For now, enjoy the song.

Books I would like to read this year

Here is a partial list of books I wish to read this year. The list consists mainly of books on self improvement, personal finance, motivational and fiction. The list will be updated as I find more books to add to it.

Target: Read and then write detailed review on at least 25 books this year :)

So here it is in no specific order:

Rich Dad Poor Dad - My initial review here
Your Life or Your Money
Never eat alone
The millionaire next door
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The 8th Habit
Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-fee Productivity
Inheritance Cycle book 4 by Christopher Paolini - yet to be published.

Got any more suggestions?

End of a charming poker career

Yeah, I got the new habit of learning and playing online poker 3 weeks back. Mostly because, I was interested in the Maths (probability) and discipline involved behind playing good poker...

And well I thought, so how bad can it be :). I have the patience, can maintain the discipline and can learn the Maths too.

So I did learn the poker terms, Maths behind the game, the basic hand strategy, etc from few online links, mostly:

Wikipedia Poker Odds
Poker Professor
Super System 1 & 2 little bit
and also watched Poker After Dark and PokerStars.net million dollar challenge on Hulu.

and finally started playing on Poker Stars initially with virtual money (also called play money chips), which I quickly multiplied 6 times. That is when I thought it is time to test with real money. The most important lesson in playing poker, don't put money you can't afford to loose. So I started with modest $10 (and another $10 soon after) and quickly lost all of it.

The reasons why I lost, the temptation to play marginal hands and not folding till the end...for ex.

Hand Card: Q, 8 off-suit, Flop comes 6 6 Q and I raise to pot size. I get raised to twice of that, I call. Get raised on turn and river and I go all in, finally to be beaten by A Q. How stupid.

Hand Card: 9 5 off-suit on blind. Flop 9 x 9. I check, thinking I have the nuts. Turn comes A, I raise to 1/2 of pot. Get raised, I call. Get raised on river, go All-in. Get beaten by hand A A i.e. Full house.
Why will a guy slow-play A A, shouldn't have I raised after the flop (maybe he would have called anyway)

Hand Card: J Q suited, get raised 3x on blind, call. Flop comes J Q x. I check, thinking I got the nuts. Turn comes K, raise on turn, get called, raise on river, get called. Get beaten by A 10 straight.
(Always be aggressive, I said to myself many times, and then saw people winning money slow-playing, did the same and lost..)

And how do they read people? I tried and got frustrated when most pots close without show-down. :)

These are the recent examples, don't remember the rest of the fall down. Though I will analyze them through Hand History.

Mistakes I did:

1. Some loose betting?
2. Didn't calculate all the hands that could beat me and just kept betting once I had a decent hand (not the nut hand).
3. Underestimated the 0.01/0.02 and 0.02/0.05 cents blind rooms. There are no fish there, I became the fish :).
4. And finally, didn't play patiently at all.

So where do I go from here? Back to not playing poker :).

But some suggestions: poker is not a bad game, it has lot of strategy involved and if mastered, you have the potential to make money out of it. In fact, I think it is almost same as putting money in stock market (though maybe a little more risky). Of course, majority of people who haven't mastered the many skills the game involves, and give into temptation, lose.

But I do strongly believe that one can win regularly in poker, especially No Limit Texas Hold'em (if not, then their won't be people who make their living out of this game, check WSOP winners and their career earnings). But enough justification, I am still very interested in the game, especially learning the many skills it requires to be a good player (as I think they are good life skills as well) and also just enjoyed this completely new perspective on gambling. :)

On to the next hobby.

Your money or your life

I am looking forward to read Your life or your money. But not able to find it in the library here.

From researching 2-3 resources on the net, I think, this book is worth a read.
Mainly, About.com, Simple Dollar and a few others.

If not, I will probably look to buy a used one online.

Rich Dad Poor Dad...my thoughts

Ok, I am done with reading RDPD by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Here is an exhaustive review by Simple Dollar

Here is the harshest criticism for the book by John T Reed - Review

I will refine this review more, as I will be reading this book once more. :)

I think its definitely a good read, but not something to harshly act upon.

Use this book as a motivation for acquiring new skills.
Use this book as a motivation to best utilize your time.
Use this as a motivation to look at your life with a very long term perspective.
Use this as a motivation to learn about how to manage your finances.
Use this to take a look at your life beyond the job, can you get a second source of income, can you retire early.
Don't use this book as a way to make your spending decisions, don't sell your house or invest without thought in stocks.

Think of the "House as a liability" and "Stocks/Property as an asset" as mere examples in the book. So when he says that he earned $15,000 or whatever in just a few hours, it is not that everyone could do it. It is that, over the years he has made conscious effort to learn about the real estate industry while being at his job, that he could spot such opportunities. Have no doubt, the background work put to reach such a level is enormous. And this story just inspires you to find your passion and work towards it. It is asking you to look beyond a normal life of a office goer and to become something more.

Running..

Literally...yeah, finally I managed to get to the gym, the first time in the year...given the freezing (read sub-zero) temperatures here and my strong inclination (to not go)...I think this is a good and early start :)....now only I need to continue on it. :)
Oh and, this is not the official monthly report which I have promised below...on my goals for the year, but kinda intermittent update...so here is another one, I am starting on my goal to read at least 6 hours a week as well.. and after going through the names of many books, I have decided on reading the Rich Dad Poor Dad. Seemingly there are as many critics to the book as are the fans. Here is one link which tries to dig deeper into how worthwhile this book really is.. Review 1.

I will provide my own reviews on it by the time I am done, the goal being to finish this book by next Sunday i.e. Jan 17th.

Work work work...

yeah, that's true, working hard is good right? Say yes please, cause I have a huge pile of it right over my head and I am ready to dish it all out this weekend..

What better way to spend a weekend than working, especially when its freezing outside...

If you are not convinced yet, check these out...
1 weekend, 1 iPhone app
Startup Weekend org

Given, they are doing more creative work, but my work is not bad either (webservices)

Have a nice weekend...bye... :)

Old blogs...all into one...

So here is the full list of boring blogs I ever published..

meandmythoughts.blogspot.com
thecobwebblog.com
and now oxymoroned.com

and there is another exciting news..

I have imported all the old blog posts from thecobwebblog.com into the current blog

so all the posts you see from 2008 and older, are from the old blog...

~

Its all white outside

If you look up 72712 in www.weather.com, the forecast looks bad, like its not bad already! :) We had snow shower last 2 nights and so of course its treacherous to go outside even for a short while. My car drives like its down 20 Pegs of the strongest Tequila and I am relearning to walk baby steps in fear of slipping.

So, yeah the climate is quite charming here and I hope it continues for quite some time (that is, if it means they will close down the office for a few days!)

All this means is that I am stuck in the confines of my home and so of course can't follow up on my goals that I set for the year a post before. (Like I really want to go to gym, even if it is sunny outside). But for now, I have a compelling reason. But soon, as I get a chance, I will start Gym (promise!).

So what I am up to?

Tied up with work, the next two months are going to be tough.

At home, I have caught up a new hobby of playing poker on Pokerstars (yow need to download their app, there are actually 2, one for playing with real money and other with play money chips i.e. virtual money). For now, I am participating in tournament qualifiers (free)for Poker stars million dollar challenge. The top 10 out of 10,000 will get a chance to get on the TV and play poker with Daniel Negreanu for a million dollars. If you have nothing at all to do, get onto Hulu and watch the show, its quite interesting (for a poker fan anyway!). The closest I have got to top was in 690 something, I am aiming for top 100 in at least one of the games (there are 4 in total every day 7-10 PM CST each hour till Jan 10th for now).

That's it folks. Stay warm! ;)

New Year Resolutions

I had talked myself out of this even before the year started.

The Reason? I have never held to my resolutions, in fact, a few months in the new year and I don't even remember what my resolution was! :) So I thought it will be the same this year and so better now waste time on it.

Why I changed my mind? I got the much needed inspiration from a blog I have started reading very recently. The Simple Dollar
I love most of the posts on the blog and was really inspired by the guy's story (Click on the my story link on the top).

So reading his 4 new year resolutions (3 actually, I can't find the post for 2nd resolution). I have decided to give a go at the resolutions once again.

But this time it will be different.
How?

1. I am posting my goals on my blog - so I don't forget them.
2. I will provide monthly updates on my progress on the goals through out the year on the blog.
3. I need to plan my calendar to make sure I devote enough time to my tasks every week.

What are my goals?

This is the toughest part, because I want to do so many things.

However, here is the list:

1. Exercise regularly, loose at least 10 Kg of weight this year.
2. Blog regularly, at least 3 posts a week.
3. Start to study - this is vague apparently but I have so many things to include in this. And I don't know yet how or what I am planning to study, but I will come up with a plan real soon and then will be able to track it regularly on the site.

Thanks and have a great new year.