Archive for July, 2007
Mad Preparation
Jul 17th
By this time next week we’ll be halfway through the man-machine poker match against Phil Laak and Ali Eslami. It should be a fun time. I’m excited to meet these pros in real life and get a chance to chat with them for a bit. I also hope our bot beats them!
We’re getting ready for the match in many ways. We’re making sure all the technical details are ready to go, and the bot is getting played against a wide variety of competition to make sure it is the best that it can be. It is super exciting, and we think we’ve definitely got a shot at winning. Lots of work to do before I hop on a plane on Saturday though!
Apparently I’m going to be in charge of live-blogging the event. Hopefully I can give you something interesting to read during the match. I’ll be updating the official match page with the live updates during the matches. If you can’t come to the event itself, you should check out the blog to see how we’re doing!
Heraldk
Poker Chip
Jul 16th
My research group just had some poker chips done to hand out kind of like business cards. This is the front, and the back has the url: poker.cs.ualberta.ca on it. We’re going to hand these babies out at the Man-Machine poker tournament we’re running and competing in next week. If you’re in the Vancouver area, you should come by and check out the action!
Off to the races
Jul 15th
On Canada Day, there is usually a bike race or two that go around the legislature grounds. This year was no exception, and I managed to get a couple of photos that turned out pretty well.
Diane and I crossed at this point and did a loop around the grounds and then headed to a Canada Day party we were going to that night. On the second crossing, there was a bike crash on the course and one of the guys catapulted over his handlebars and landed unceremoniously on his head. I sure hope he’s okay! And that, kids, is why you where a helmet!
Entirely Too Hot
Jul 13th
Ugh. Well, Edmonton is sizzlingly hot. Yup, we’re in the middle of a crazy hot spell. The forecast for the entire week doesn’t dip below 30 degrees. As I type this at ten minutes to ten o’clock, it is *still* 30 degrees outside. Thank goodness I’ve got an air conditioner in my condo. It’s making it relatively livable in my place.
In other news, if you haven’t already, you should totally check out the Shakespeare in the park show “Two Gentlemen of Verona”. It’s amazing! This is the first time the Shakespeare in the park people have put together a musical version of one of Shakespeare’s plays. It is hilarious, and entertaining, and the actors are incredibly talented. So if you’re in the city, you should go check it out. I’m tempted to go again before I leave for Vancouver, it was that good.
Stay cool!
Heraldk
Poker Bankroll Updated
Jul 12th
I haven’t been playing nearly as much as I used to, but I have played a couple of PSO promos since the neteller fiasco. Just before neteller closed its doors to Canadians for online gambling transactions, I cashed out all of my money from online poker rooms. Since that time, I’ve done the new PSO promotions for Pokerstars and Gnuf poker, each worth a $120 bonus from PSO. The Pokerstars one was okay, I lost about $40 at the tables, but since the Pokerstars deposit bonus was $50, I ended up ahead at the site so the PSO bonus was pure profit on top of that.
Gnuf poker was pretty interesting. I deposited $500 to max out the deposit bonus only to discover that points are extremely hard to accumulate. It took me almost a month and a half to get through the PSO required 400 points, and the $500 bonus required more than 3000 more points. Screw that. But I did very well at the tables scoring more than $600. Add that to my PSO bonus of $120 and I was quite happy with that outcome. There’s been a little bit of nervousness on my part as I tried to get my money out. They finally added another cashout option that looks like it’ll work for me, so hopefully everything will all be sorted out soon.
My poker bankroll page has been updated to reflect my latest winnings.
So I’m pretty happy with the last couple of months. I might get into poker a little more once the man-machine match is over and done with. Until then, I think I’ll be pretty busy!
Heraldk
Freshly Trimmed Grass
Jul 11th
Another photo from the Japanese show garden at the Devonian Botanical Garden. I love how the lines in the grass are so perfect.
Sicko
Jul 11th
Recently I watched the new Michael Moore documentary … twice. Once by myself, and then once with Diane a few days later. It is an extremely powerful and moving film, and one that I’m very glad I saw. Say what you will about Michael Moore … but I don’t think you can say he makes bad movies. They are interesting, and entertaining, and this one might be the best one I’ve seen yet. (I’ve seen two others: Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine).
My complaints about the movie are few, but here’s a couple. The first is that the weakest part of the movie is the first segment with the couple that is forced to move in with their children. First of all, it seems really weird for the family to go through this tough time in their lives right in front of the camera. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d hate to have that sort of thing recorded by a family camcorder let alone a major movie producer. What made me feel more uncomfortable yet was the way the people were reacting to their parents moving in with them. Where’s the love? The parents are going through likely the most difficult time of their lives and it didn’t seem like their kids were very supportive.
The other complaint I had was that Michael Moore seemed to paint the rosiest picture of the Canadian health care system. On the one hand, I can see why — the American public should be made aware that the Canadian system does work to a certain extent. But it sure isn’t perfect. Of course, I totally prefer what we’ve got to what they’ve got…
Other than that, the movie was really strong. One point in particular struck home with me when Moore was interviewing former British MP Tony Benn. Tony made a point about how an educated, confident and healthy nation is harder to govern. But it also gives the power to the people because a nation that is educated, confident and healthy is capable of standing up to the government. In the states, it seems that everything is headed in the other direction: education is dropping, health is dropping, and the public is being scared by the threat of … well everything. If the US is going to change dramatically, people are going to have to gain these three things to stand up against the government and its wrongdoing and see if things can get changed for the better. God I hope so … but I’m not holding my breath.
Heraldk
Devonian Bridge
Jul 8th
My camera got a bit of a workout last weekend. The fireworks was one batch of photos, but the next day we went to the Devonian Botanical Garden to wander around and look at the pretty flowers. It was a beautiful day. This is a bridge in the Japanese garden. It was really pretty — I love reflections in water!
Purple!
Jul 7th
Burst-ness
Jul 6th
There’s something about cropping a firework down to just it’s surroundings. Sometimes you don’t really want the landscape around and want to focus in on the burst itself. If you zoom in on the firework itself, the effect can be pretty cool.
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