Tochi's Hut

I had 9 Spades, 8 of Diamonds.

Flop:  Q of Spades, K of Spades, J of Diamonds

Turn: 10 of Spades

River: A of Spades

The pot was getting quite big.  After river, one guy raised 6k in chips.   Everyone else  folded.   I had about 8k remaining.  Only one card can beat my flush.  Should I go?

I lost.  First time I've seen a Royal Flush.

TW posted an update to his blog:

I'm surprised to see that I haven't updated my blog for months.  Although I have no obligation to commit writing something timely, I do feel bad myself.  Busy is not an excuse.  Perhaps I lack motivation ...

SHIAAT.  Talk about hitting the nail on the head.  Time for another heart pulse to show Tochi's alive.... although I wonder who still checks this blog.  :D

• YW brought his P&S along for our last ski runs of the season.  We've been practicing skiing techniques and watching skiing videos (courtesy of TL), so we wanted to see what we looked like.  Here is TochiSki.   I thought I was skiing a lot better than what you see in the video.  Watching it afterwards and doing the post mortem on what I was doing right and wrong is kind of unsettling.... but there's no better way to improve!
  
• ToastMasters.  PM invited me to the regional's.  All the speakers were pretty cool.  The most impressive was this retired businessman turned pastor.  His speech was entitled "Live and Don't Die".  A really inspiring speech about what it really means to live.  If all your life worries / concerns (i.e. family, money, work, etc.) were taken care of and you could do whatever you want, would you be doing right now?  Are you working towards those dreams?
  
• Got lured into a Cherry Blossoms viewing trip in Washington over Easter by my mom.  I didn't find out until I was heading down to Washington that the flowers were only 10% in bloom.  WTF!!!
  
• Poker Nights.  I went All-In with pocket A's and LOST.   I won a coffee at Timmy's tho. :D
  
• COG April Fool's secret "party" with a bunch of local cachers.  I found out about the party details through unofficial means, so I essentially crashed the party.  Felt a little guilty. :D
  
• TochiGPX is the 3rd web related development project I've incubated.  Finally GA'd to the world and received a warm reception.  Spent some time learning about XUL development, which really is quite cool.
  
• Some issues with my kitchen countertop required me to essentially gut and rebuild it.  Following DIY guides, I've been slowly fixing it.   I'm now less impressed with someone's bathroom cabinet, sink and counter.  I definitely won't need a year! :D
  
• Finally got nice weather this past weekend.  AR, KP, ML and I have been itching to get out biking for the past few weeks, so we finally did.  It was nice to feel the wind blow across your body again.
  
• After so many years, I FINALLY understand how curling scoring works.  It makes the game so much more exciting to watch.

Here's last Wednesday's Lotto 6/49 draw.

23 40 41 42 44 45 Bonus: 43

Notice, 40->45 (including the bonus)!!! You might think, who the heck would buy 40 to 45? Well, 239 people did.... enough to dilute the 2nd prize per person payout, which ended up being $1k less than the 3rd prize.

Here are the numbers:

What can you say?  $1.2k ain't that shabby.... 

P.S.  Windows Live Writer does not have Find and Replace. It's sad when I have to copy my HTML table to NOTEPAD to do F+R, then copy it back.  What a crappy product.

TVB made this awesome 5 episode series on a trek to 玉珠峰.   It's a snow capped mountain in 青海省, western part of China, near one of the stops on the Tibet railroad.   Peak elevation is 6178m (20,269ft).  To put things in perspective, Vail's summit elevation is a meager 3527m (11,570ft).

The series totally captures the beauty, the challenges and hardships of such an expedition.  The commentaries from the 3 celebrities are so genuine and down to earth.  I just cannot appreciate enough the ordeals and suffering that they had to go through, and can only imagine how rewarding such an experience must have been.  From my experiences, I've been stuck in blizzards, have gone on long hikes, have been in situations where I can barely take another step, have wanted to just stop, sleep and drop dead.  However, the crew in the series had to put up with all of that in a single trip.  Just unfathomable.

My favourite comment from the show is that, when you get to the top, you realize that being at the top is really insignificant.  It's the shared journey and friendships that you build that become forever memorable.  When you get down to the basics of life and extend yourself beyond your typical limits, you'll realize how much more there is to the world.  The little things that bog down our daily lives are really, truly inconsequential. 

Highly recommend this series to everyone.  You can watch online here  (First 5 links).  Jaw dropping, fascinating, breath taking.  Gives you a sense of why I love these wild and crazy excursions. XD

Better to blog them than to never blog at all.  It's March, so I'm due for some updates:

• Made my Jelly Bellies debut.  3 on 3 mixed floor hockey.   Got placed on the "first" line with AP.  We had some good chemistry, 2 man cycles, crispy passes and shots.  My best chance was when I got a pass from AP in front of the net.  I faked the lone defender out and in trying to stop me, she dove/slid into the net knocking over their goalie.  I gathered the ball and put a high shot into the empty top part of the net.  The goalie somehow managed to get his glove up to rob me of a sure goal.  All in all, had many great opportunities, but didn't end up scoring.  Went -1 on a night after giving up a fluky goal.  Lost 1-6.  Lots of fun though.
  
• I still cannot do moguls. :(
  
• Played the most intense squash game of my life with YW.  Both of us were "in the zone", which set up some amazing rallies (one of which must have been 30+ shots).  I could feel my heart beating, my heat hurting and my arms and legs aching.  I've never had to do this in a squash game before, but between points, I leaned over with my hands on my knees, huffing and buffing.
  
• Got a chance to go up ScotiaBank tower in downtown.  Quite a pretty sight looking down into the business district from high up.  Next up is TD Bank tower in a few weeks.
  
• Last year, everyone in our lab took part in a group photo.  They finally released the photo, which set off a massive Find Waldo search.  I spent 10 minutes starring at the photo trying to find Tochi.  Two coworkers joined the search too, but couldn't spot me.  I ended up asking one of the two tall guys I stood beside to pinpoint my coordinates.  sigh.
  
• 農家菜館 - the official "dim sum" go-to place now.  Across from Markville Mall.  All dim sum @ $1.80, 7-days a week, 9am-4pm.  The food, for the most part, is very good.  The ones that are only so-so are written off as "It's only $1.80, what can you expect?"  The place is always jam packed.  And check out these Siu Mai:
  
  

  

  Little pieces of abalone!! lol.  After you stuff yourself full, the best part is when the bill arrives.  About $7-$8 per person including tax and tip.  The price and value amaze me every single time.  I cannot stop going back, even though it's quite a drive each time.  Good food, unbeatable prices!
  
• Got the HyperDrive case for TochiCam on Europe trip.  Still debating which HD to get though. 
  
• Canada recorded another year of federal surplus of $12.6 billion.  $10.2B of which will pay down our national debt (currently at approximately $460billion).  Some critics have complained that we have better ways to spend the 10.2 billion, but I really don't mind our government paying off some of the debt.
  
• Daylight savings starts on March 9th?!?!?!  ugh.