This is not a man with a blog.

Soon, all my posts will be in the category ‘Life’

By Shabbir | November 16, 2007 | Comments Off on Soon, all my posts will be in the category ‘Life’

That is until I’m dead.  I’ll have Sarah make a category called "Death" and post something from ‘beyond the grave’ (cue scary music). I just caught this headstone created by Peter Schipperheyn (link to piece vitals and artist website) that a woman had commissioned for her husband’s grave.  I find these extravagant expressions of love…

My best fold ever

By Shabbir | November 9, 2007 |

I played the Sunday night tournament at Artichoke Joe’s, and got put out when my pair of tens ran into a pair of Aces.  I re-raised, and the Aces made a minimum re-raise, and all the money went in and I was put out.  Does this sound familiar?  I made this same mistake a coupe…

Apparently Fake Steve Jobs is still brilliant.

By Shabbir | November 7, 2007 | Comments Off on Apparently Fake Steve Jobs is still brilliant.

When hunky NY Times reporter Brad Stone unmasked Fake Steve Jobs, the faux blog took a bit of a nosedive in quality and I stopped reading. Recently a friend who works at Apple pointed me at this column after an evening discussion, fueled by red meat and decent wine, about how I thought that Google…

Important life lessons learned at inappropriate times.

By Shabbir | November 6, 2007 | Comments Off on Important life lessons learned at inappropriate times.

It’s impossible to be understood by an automated answering system (say, at an airline company) when you’re either screaming or crying (or both). You can spray and treat your house for termites, but you may still get them from your neighbor.  (So far so good, though) Even the most benevolent dictators are still dictators.  (Photo:…

The value of one boot

By Shabbir | November 3, 2007 | Comments Off on The value of one boot

So at the end of October I had my first losing session in a long while.  After twelve convincingly profitable sessions over about 40 days where I knew I outplayed my opponents and I minimized the random cards I was getting, I hit the double whammy: I got a run of barely playable hands at…

Didja see it?

By Shabbir | November 1, 2007 | Comments Off on Didja see it?

It was so incredibly subtle, and nobody noticed it, but it just happened.  Google went from early adopter to fast follower.  Instead of bringing out market-changing products that disrupt, they’re reacting to other’s innovations.  As evidence I offer: Google Reader, a superior product produced as a response to Bloglines, which I abandoned for the Google…

Your life’s work

By Shabbir | October 31, 2007 | Comments Off on Your life’s work

I was struck today by several confluenced events whose central theme is someone’s life’s work.  It’s not always a giant benefit to the planet, but it seems that there are lots of stories, big and small, that show how doing something you love ends up having a huge impact on others. First, there was the…

No earthquake damage

By Shabbir | October 31, 2007 | Comments Off on No earthquake damage

This one is for my non-SF friends who may be concerned about the quake we just experienced.  Everyone is fine, no damage, no injuries. The earthquake hit last night, and Sarah, Moishe, the dogs and I were all mostly sitting in my home office when it happened.  I grabbed Moishe and stood in a doorway…

My new poker table

By Shabbir | October 30, 2007 | Comments Off on My new poker table

I picked up a poker table and tournament chipset off Craigslist for $200 plus the cost of a Zipcar Tacoma pickup truck.  I’m looking forward to assembling a home study game.

My new frugality

By Shabbir | October 29, 2007 | Comments Off on My new frugality

This weekend I knocked out a bunch of things I’d been trying to accomplish for a while now. First, I fixed our leaky kitchen sink.  Depending on how you closed the cold water tap it would drip or outright stream water despite being "off".  For you home improvement nuts it’s a cartridge style handle.  For…