Shabbir's Diary

Snow haiku

White fluffly snow falls

Here, state of emergency

No work on Tuesday.

Skipping Towards Gomorrah

As do many people, I read Dan Savage's column religiously. Well, not quite religiously, but I do read it frequently. My wife Sarah knows this, so it was certainly a forgone conclusion that I was going to get Savage's new book, Skipping Towards Gomorrrah, as a present sooner or later. In it, Savage proceeds to find an American sub-culture that embraces each one of the seven deadly sins, and then proceed to commit the sin with them. This is difficult, since Dan cannot marry (making adulty impossible) but he does make a good run at it.

Shut Up And Deal

I was reading Shut Up And Deal when I broke my ankle in Lake Tahoe recently. I had a lot of time to sit in one place, and so I ploughed through most of the reading I brought with me. Jesse May, the protagonist of the book is two parts Charles Bukowski, one part card shark, and one part obsessive-compulsive. Written as a personal diary through several years of his life as a professional gambler, May shows us exactly what it is to ride the emotional roller coaster that is professional gambling.

The Biggest Game in Town

During a recent trip to Lake Tahoe, I completed the definitive poker legends book. Written in 1983 by A. Alvarez, The Biggest Game in Town chronicles the characters that made Vegas, and more specifically, blazed the trail for professional poker players everywhere.

Snowboarding haiku

Getting off the chair
Two quick pops from in my boot
Done skiing today.

Shuttle Haiku

I see sad white trails 
On video wallpaper.
None are coming home.

Hybrid minivans

A colleague at work is in the market for a new minivan, but mentioned that they get awful gas mileage. I knew there had to be something better in the works, and I was right and they get great mileage. And I discovered a feature of hybrid cars I haven't yet noticed: the huge batteries can be used to run other gear while you're out with your car (camping gear, tvs, radios, etc). Pretty cool.