As I finished washing the dishes today, I noticed a little soap bubble floating at about eye level. It was no more than 1/4 inch in diameter, but very likely was a little smaller. I watched the bubble for a while before realizing that I had been watching the bubble for a while. I noted the time and kept watching. I followed it out of the kitchen, down the hallway, and into my bedroom. I stared at it some more, as it lowered towards the floor, found an updraft, and headed for the ceiling. Finally, it descended to my bed where it popped. It lasted for 5 minutes from the time that I looked at the clock. It could easily have lasted 8-10 minutes, but I can't be sure.
60 Minutes had a piece about online poker. You can follow the link here. The story that they talk about is something that I've been aware of for the past year or so. It's an online cheating scandal and the aftermath of it. The report says that playing online poker is illegal, but the law is actually related to transactions between banks and online gaming sites, so it's misleading in that respect. I must admit that I'm completely unfazed by the scandal. I don't play at either site mentioned, and the site that I do play at has a solid reputation. Even if cheating does happen, in the grand scheme of things, it's a rare enough occurrence that I'm willing to take my chances.
Speaking of poker, I haven't played much in the last month. Hopefully, with classes ending in a couple weeks I'll find time to play live and online a little bit more. I'm trying to balance that with the work I'm doing with backgammon, mostly playing and analyzing matches to find leaks in my game. I also need to start work on my notes for next semester, which starts on January 20. I'm going to miss out on a couple weeks because of travel home and travel to DC, so I can't be too lazy about that.
I'm in the middle of a number of reading projects right now. I still haven't finished "On Food and Cooking," though that book reads like an encyclopedia and I need to be in the right mood to make progress in it. I'm rereading "What's so Amazing About Grace" because it has been a while since I last read it. I'm also halfway through "The Making of a Chef" which is a reporter's experience at the CIA (the Culinary Institute of America -- not the other CIA). It's very revealing about the mindset and attitudes of professional chefs and the training that they endure. I've also got "Think Like a Chef" waiting in the wings, as well as "How to Eat Supper" which I will probably read last. I'm also reading through a backgammon book, too.
On the topic of books, I'm thinking of writing one. Well, a textbook. I don't really like the textbook we're currently using for our most remedial math class. It doesn't seem to address the issues that I think are really important for students at that level. It gives them a lot of rote exercises (which is good), but fails to lay any intellectual foundation upon which future classes can build. There's no development of logical thought processes and nowhere close to the right level of arithmetic drills. It also spends far too much time solving integer linear equations and not nearly enough time working with fractions. It also does not go into much depth about proper presentation (which is part of the logical though processes). I'm hoping that over the next semester I'll be able to write up a draft of it for a trial run in the Fall, but that might be pushing it a little too much. I'll have to see how it goes.
