cyberspace junkyard

Do you feel more at peace before or after a decision?

When something is looming in your life, do you stress out more in the process of making a decision, flip backwards and forwards between two or more options, weigh out all the pros and cons and still wonder if you should just go with your gut feel, ask a few trusted friends but then disregard all their advice until finally, finally, you squint your eyes, clench your fists, drum up all your courage and make a final choice?

Or do you come to a decision quickly and rapidly, but then spend hours, days, weeks agonising over whether or not you did the right thing, whether it's too late to change your mind, patch up the broken pieces, come up with a contingency plan for getting out of it in case it all goes down the tube and you wish you hadn't leapt before you thought?

Me? I think I'm better after a decision. Hence, I'm in a good mood, having recently (well, last 2 months) made decisions on where I live, where I work and where I go to church. It's a liberating feeling.

sigh

Overnight, my favourite figure skater of all time, Michelle Kwan, announced her withdrawal from the Torino Winter Olympics. I'm in a bit of shock and very sad for her. I don't want to write a long post about it, faithful readers and friends know how much I respect and admire Michelle. It's all over the news, reporters around the world have all had a go just do the google search, but these writers have already said it all (especially Phillip Hersh).

Michelle bows out as possibly the best ever - Hersh
Kwan knew in her mind - but her heart beat on - Posnanski
No more tears, Kwan exits with class - Robertson
Skating legend Michelle Kwan withdraws gracefully - Brennan

“I've learned that it's not about the gold. It's about the spirit of it. It's about the sport itself. I have no regrets. I tried my hardest, and if I don't win the gold, it's OK. I've had a great career and I've been very lucky. I'll miss the sport. It's beautiful."
-- Michelle Kwan, 12.02.2006

Love you Michelle!

Slightly incoherent post coming up, targetting a mere 0.005% of the population. If you've done the same thing as me, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't... better give up now.

I play Solitaire on my xda when I'm bored. Usually on public transport, or sometimes during commercial breaks on TV. That sort of thing. I have it on "Vegas" mode, with a 3 card deal, because I find it more challenging. Basically what happens is every new game costs you $52 to play, and every card you stack up (suits in order from Ace up) earns you $5. As you might imagine, it doesn't take too long until you're in negative dollars. Each full game that you win (all cards stacked up) earns you $260. So when you work out the odds in terms of how many games you need to play to win a few, I've often ended my nights quite happily having won 3/10 games and basically broken even.

Well, over the past week, I have been on an incredible winning streak. I've somehow managed to win several consecutive games, breaking the $1000 profit barrier for the first time and today, I hit $1,688 in earnings.

Just thought I'd share. I'll return you to your regular programming now.