A Change In Priorities & A Message Of Love

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For disappearing acts, it's hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work.
--- Doug Larson

Watches are so named as a reminder - if you don't watch carefully what you do with your time, it will slip away from you.
--- Drew Sirtors

Do not confuse “duty” with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anytbing from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect. But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants “just a few minutes of your time, please--this won’t take long.” Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time--and squawk for more! So learn to say No--and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don’t do it because it is “expected” of you.)
--- Lazarus Long (From Time Enough For Love by Robert A. Heinlein)

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I have started working out again. I bought a convertable rowing/ski machine and busted out the weight bench.

After a year's slowdown at work, including a 30% layoff, which I thankfully escaped, business is finally picking up again. Not enough to allow the company to hire back anyone, however. So all the extra work is falling on those of us still there. That means working late on a regular basis.

My live poker play is much stronger than my online since I am very good at reading people. Live I am a consistently winning player. About a 50% ROI. Two years ago I played live poker two or three nights a week. It slowly dropped off to the point where recently I am lucky to play once every couple weeks. I am going to change that. A local bar has poker 3 times a week on weekdays. No limit Holdem $10 buyin 60 player tournaments twice a week with $20 ten man SnG sidegames once enough are knocked out, and a $25 buyin deepstack another day with different games each week. (The bar owner used to just GIVE tens of thousands a year to charity, now he matches the pot and donates it to the winners choice of several local charities - He still gets the tax writeoff he would have just by donating and at the same time fills his bar with people on slow weeknights year round - and since it is matched for charity the poker is completely legal in Massachusetts) I also have a standing invite to Friday and Saturday Ring games. My goal is to get back to playing live at least two or three times a week.

Along with that.....

I have not been a good friend to many on RB that deserve better. Commenting in a very brief fashion on their blogs or just skipping them altogether due to a lack of time.

I have been woefully behind in my duties to my clan, the League Of Lizzards.

I haven't updated the Strat Guide, the Members Guide, or my profile page in ages, despite the fact that I keep meaning to. I have, quite literally, hundreds of links bookmarked to add to both guides. I hope to do a major update to both blogs, and my profile, before the end off the year.

I would like to host a tourney myself every once in a while. Start doing my "Experiments" again. Which some others have actually co-opted and made weekly games them selves (I do NOT mind that....that is what happens to experiments once they prove out as workable)

I have run out of time and something had to give.

The thing that is going by the wayside is my online poker play and some of my RB participation.

I am NOT leaving RB.

I am NOT leaving the Lizzards either.

I am NOT doing the "Week In Blogs" any more. Although I received consistent help from a couple members and occasional help from a few others, I felt that if I was going to do it I needed to do it right. To that end I perused the New Blogs for things to add to the Week In Blogs. That was the biggest time eater. I bit off a lot more than I could chew with the Week In Blogs. I was raised and taught that if you are going to do something, do it right. I no longer have the time to do it right - so I am not going to do it anymore.

I am NOT going to hunt through the New Blogs for blogs to add to my Strat or Members Guides. Unless I am told about them by another member of RB or I get the blog notification because they are a friend I will not bookmark them. I will still put my banner on blogs if I intend to add them to the guides.

I have only rarely written a "woe is me" blog. When I do I usually just allude to it with quotes, poems, or songs. (Like I have done at the beginning and the end of this blog). It feels to me like self-promotion or self pitying, but my friends on here deserve to know why and what is happening.

See you all - here on RB and on the felt.

David

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I have posted this part several times before.
It can never be said often enough.
Despite the fact that I feel I am letting down some people.
I hope they can understand.

Despite all of the drama and the soap opera atmosphere
that occasionally takes over Railbirds
It is remarkable to me how kind people
generally and genuinely are to each other here.

The contests and the freerolls; sponsored and supported by donations.
The outpouring of love and support to those that ask for it.

That is the sense of community that Railbirds is all about.

It is the main reason I've stayed over the long haul.
Even though I am, by nature, a loner.

I was raised Catholic and even though I am now vastly lapsed,
an existentialist libertarian anarchist at heart, in fact,
I still believe that the main message of Jesus holds true.

Love Conquers All

The heart is an ever amazing thing to me.
Every time I perceive a limitation to it,
it proves to me it goes still deeper.
It’s ever growing, expanding, forgiving, learning and accepting.
No matter how many times a heart breaks
it has the ability to come back and love again.
The heart doesn't understand giving up or cutting itself off,
nor does it understand limiting the amount of love given
or the number of people love is given to.
Oh yes.....
We can block it with our minds and protect it to some extent.
But the heart itself has no concept of self preservation.
It’s only thought is to love.
Openly, freely, and fully.
Without thoughts of caution for the possibility of future hurts.
What an amazing, wonderful thing.....

The more you love,
the more you can love,
and the more intensely you love.
Nor is there any limit on how many you can love.
If a person had time enough, he could love all
of that majority who are decent and just.
--- Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein's "Time Enough For Love"

If I speak in tongues of men and of angels but have not love,
I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal;
and if I have prophetic powers, understand all mysteries
and all knowledge and if I have faith so as to move mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.
--- The Apostle Paul in Corinthians

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