Back At It

We're back from Hawaii and today was my first day back at the grind. Ran kind of poorly but whatever. The last few days in Hawaii were great. We attended my friend Carol's wedding which was very well done, the highlight of the night had the be the lighting of traditional Chinese paper lanters and launching them out to sea. I'm amazed that the Hilton at Waikoloa allowed this, as we had several lanterns make contact with trees/bushes/grass posing a pretty significant fire hazard (though the ones my girlfriend and I sent off were executed flawlessly and zoomed into the distant ocean).

The bus tour that missed us the first time around ended up being an informative trip that I enjoyed, though the twelve hour duration did make for a long day. On the last day of our stay we toured the OceanRider Seahorse Farm, and got to handle a seahorse which was lots of fun. It is truly amazing how small newborn seahorses are.

On the hockey side of things, I'm hoping the Kings manage to knock off the Devils in the Stanley Cup Final for Darryl Sutter's sake. He may not have been the best GM (though his trade to bring in Kiprusoff is one of the top three trades in Flames history for sure), but he was a hell of a coach and did a lot for the Flames franchise.

As we received the game for free, the girlfriend and I are giving Diablo 3 a run. It's pretty much what I expected so far, which is neither here nor there. It isn't particularly my style of game, but Blizzard quality makes it near impossible for it to not be enjoyable and worth the time.

Hawaii (Part 3)

On Thursday we were supposed to take our twelve hour bus tour around the island. We were up and ready at the crack of dawn, but the bus did not show up at our pickup point. Obviously we were not impressed, and rescheduled for Monday.

Yesterday we had a five hour snorkel trip booked with SeaQuest. We were fortunate to have a great Captain, and while the boat was on the small side the experience on the whole was exceptional. There were three snorkel stops, the first at "Place of Refuge", which to me seemed a lot like "Coral Gardens", a popular snorkel stop by boat in the Caymans. At this location we were lucky enough to see some moray eels, a bonefish, a small sea turtle (who after I followed him for a few minutes decided it was time for a nap and dove into some coral, wedging the front half of his body underneath), as well as a wide variety of the colourful fish we'd already seen around the island. The second location was the Captain's choice, and he took us to a sea cave which provided a unique experience, though the wildlife did not compare to the other two stops on the trip. Our final stop was at the Captain Cook Monument, which is apparently regarded as the best snorkelling amongst all the Hawaiian Islands. The fish density was exceptional and visibility was great, though we didn't see anything particularly out of the ordinary. One thing of interest at the location was that once you get more than maybe fifty yards from shore (where the water is between very shallow and moderately shallow for snorkelling) there is an immediate drop-off to an abyssal depth far beyond any hope of visibility. A shot of the monument itself above water is below. As before, we took some underwater pictures but as we were using a disposable film based camera there's nothing to show as of yet - hopefully they turn out.

Aside from the snorkelling, the trip had a bunch of other highlights. We ran into pods of spinner dolphins three times, the first of which was as we were pulling out of the harbour. They were fairly playful, and watching them jump and spin was entertaining. Later, we were shown several lava caves and educated as to how the island was formed with the visual aid of layers of volcanic rock as evidence. We were also fortunate enough to run into a rare fish-eating avian called a "Tropicbird" which was very impressive looking; it had long twin tail feathers which would drag behind it as it flew. There's a picture of one below:

In all, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. We have a wedding to attend tomorrow (which is why we're here in the first place), and then have a couple more days to enjoy before we head back. Along with the rescheduled bus tour we're going to take a tour of a seahorse farm which should be interesting.

Hawaii (Part 2)

Last night we went on the Manta Night Snorkel I talked about in the last post. It was a pretty unreal experience. The rays, with wingspans up to twelve feet or so would start below the gathered snorkelers (due to the light which was bringing plankton, their food, to the surface), and then loop up to near the surface in a 360 degree arc, and repeat. During their arcs, they rays would frequently come within an inch of the snorkelers. From up close you can see right into their maws, which extent for around a foot. We have a bunch of photos on film from a disposable underwater camera, though due to the lighting conditions there's no guarantee they'll turn out. Fingers crossed.

Today we tried snorkelling at Kahaluu Bay, which though a little crowded had a lot fish including a bunch I'd never seen before. There was also a small turtle sunning itself in the shallows, and getting a lot of attention from the tourists. One of my favourites in the fish department was the Moorish Idol, which seemed to often be found in pairs.

Tomorrow we're going on a twelve hour bus tour around pretty much the entire island, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the area around the Hilo side.

Hawaii (Part 1)

I arrived in Hawaii yesterday. I debated whether or not to blog on this vacation as there will be no poker related content at all, but since enough folks who know me personally read this stuff I figure I might as well. My girlfriend and I are here for a wedding, but made sure to plan out a ten day vacation to make the most of the trip to the Big Island.

The flight was long but good, and I actually managed to sleep some on the plane. We're staying on a golf course in Waikoloa, and I've been impressed with the service at our condo resort so far. Today we headed out to go snorkelling at a place called Anaehoomalu Bay. It's the first time I've been snorkelling in seven years, and while it was a little choppy with mediocre visibility, we did find some nice coral. Some fish I recognized from my many years visiting the Caribbean, but we found at least three or four new varieties. The highlight of the excursion was drifting near a three and a half foot long sea turtle, who I imagine must have been upwards of sixty pounds. His shell looked ancient, and he was entirely unconcerned that he was well within our reach.

We booked three activities for the week. Tomorrow we're doing a night snorkel with Manta Rays. I've spent a lot of time snorkelling with Southern Rays in the Caymans, but never interacted with Mantas. I’m looking forward to it.

Later in the week we'll be doing a full day bus tour around the island which allegedly contains 11 of the 13 climate zones earth has to offer. So far we haven't seen much beyond beach and fields of volcanic rock that stretch for miles. Finally we'll be doing a daytime snorkel tour with three stops, including one at the Captain Cook monument which is famous for its reef life. I think we'll also make our way out to a seahorse farm tour which should be interesting.

Staggering

Earlier in the week Pokerstars had a server restart, and upon the server being back online I was unable to login. I would enter my username and password successfully, get prompted for my RSA token and enter that correctly - and then nothing would happen. The issue corrected itself in about an hour and a half, and it was confirmed by support (hours later) to be a server side problem. During that time, I was troubleshooting on my end to make sure nothing was amiss. The last thing I looked at was my notes.xml file, containing all the player notes and color coding I have generated on Stars while grinding.

Nothing was wrong with the file (years ago there was bug in the Stars client that would corrupt one's notes.txt, which I why I was suspicious), but what I was shocked to discover was simply how many players I have color coded since the functionality was implemented (a little over a year ago I think, maybe as much as 18 months). The number was over 54,000. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of these players were of the recreational variety, as the regular pool plays many tables at a time and doesn't change all that much. I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised, but to think just how many players must deposit to support the poker ecosystem at small stakes is nothing short of staggering. Granted, a lot of recreational players have to throw $500 on Stars for me to end up taking six figures a year out of the economy, especially when so much of that money goes to rake. That being said, it just doesn't feel like I'm color coding all that many players any more - though after checking the file again it seems over the last two days I've added ~200 or so entries. Even though game quality may not be great, it's tough to argue that the advertising team at Pokerstars isn't attracting a lot of new recreational players.