odiousgambit's Blog

Peppers: True Story

I once put some really hot chili peppers in vinegar, the really small red peppers the Chinese like. This I stored in jars that had been used for okra pickles, which do come preserved in vinegar, so the jars should take just acid OK. Checking a few months later I found the metal lids had been eaten up by whatever off-gassed. The lids were paper thin, crumbling to the touch; you still saw the logo painted on top but 'poof' if you touched it.

I always thought it would be interesting to make it an enclosed system for a science experiment. There might be a brief period where it could be shown that this is just possibly an exothermic reaction.

The Hook Explored

So as explained in the last post, I am retreating from a vow not to hit the local casinos 'ever', and conceding to myself that under certain circumstances I am not going to be able to resist. So now I am going to have to say I don't frequent the local spots, but might be seen there once in a blue moon. I can still point with pride to never playing local lotteries, slots, keno, and all that stuff.

The newest development is that the wife is now cutting this trip out of town short, not being able to meet up with her brother after all. If I had known that, I wouldnt have even thought much about what I was supposed to do with myself. Something a bit longer would have been fine, I think most of us guys get enough of the 24-7 experience with a spouse and actually my wife confesses the same of me sometimes [such honesty is good for a marriage I think] However, I repeat, the hook is set! I don't see how I can let everyone down now after promising a report (it has nothing to do with scratching the old itch [g])

So how and why did the hook get set?

*For one thing, I am under-budget for my gambling, meaning I set aside so much and this keeps growing. This even though it has been a while since I came out a winner. That says I have a gambling problem: I don't gamble enough!!

*DJ Teddybear is also partly responsible [g]. If you search my other blog posts you will see he said I need to give the locals another chance. I think he is right, plus if nobody else is going to review these places I will.

*My craps game has me going. Last time out I was doing well with setting the dice, so it seemed. This even though I am telling myself the good results mean nothing due to a quite ridiculously small number of trials, without actual data but merely this impression, plus a sober assessment leading always to not really believing it possible, I mean really guy! Yet it eats at me, I want to get back at it, I need to play this thing out to my satisfaction.

*Blackjack is new for me, my first time out in real conditions didn't encourage me much, losing a small amount with it. However, clearly this needs more of a chance, I have no doubt that there should be times I walk away a winner. The local games seem to have decent rules.

*I am still experimenting with the Comp thing. So far not so good, that'll be a future post perhaps.

You never know, I might get busy and see the window of opportunity close, but stay tuned and we shall see if this little jaunt takes place.

The Hook is Set

My wife is going to spend a couple of weeks out of town visiting relatives at the end of the month. It wouldn't be a good time for me to take off from work. Thus it's quite a bit of time to have to myself, so there seems to be no doubt that a day trip to some of the local casino action is in order. I'll do a review I guess, so stay tuned.

I had debated with myself about this; the very local action now available is a bit disappointing in many regards, and too close at hand now perhaps for comfort. I had found I could pretty much leave it alone and had been happy with myself about that. So now I have to theorize as to why I have changed my mind. One thing that changed for sure is my spouse being gone for an extended time. But I think there are some other reasons and I will honestly explore them in a future blog post.

Why gamble at all? I've really been thinking about this. Expanding on something the WoO touched on at some point, clearly the reason to offer a bet is because you think you have the edge, a good bet he likes to say. The reason to accept one is because you believe the person offering it is wrong, and that you have the edge instead by accepting it. A casino offers action because it has the edge, and those who patronize that place are doing so do it for various reasons that seldom meet the above condition. Even if comps totally cover someones action, that to me still doesnt meet the condition. For those who can be sure that they have real player advantage, then they have to deal with not being welcome; I need not go into that here I think? In any case, player advantage or evidently even just being smart about being comped does not seem to be in the near future for me, so truly the only reason for me to go violates all the better reasons and instead is just to play for the fun of possibly enjoying short term favorable luck. Prior to now, for the most part I had reserved that kind of entertainment for vacations, times that I could justify such expense better, and frankly justify where I am finding myself better. So I think I am surprising myself a little bit here. But there is absolutely no doubt I am going to do this. The hook is set! Stay tuned.

Thoughts on Tornadoes

After posting this about the Tuscaloosa storm, I started thinking about tornadoes. Growing up in a part of the South where they would definitely hit, I was positively scared of them, and very scared that they would come in the middle of the night. Yet I never saw one or had one pass us very close at all. I've also never seen hail larger than modest sized grapes.

Meteorologists always seem a bit puzzled as to how and why tornadoes form, or at least they have a hard time explaining it. What's usually presented is that a supercell thunderstorm has a rotating wind formation associated with it, and that downdrafts play havoc with this, making funnels hit the ground at times. At this point it seems to become a new creation, as if an initial release of energy compounds upon itself and feeds on itself.

I've never seen this claimed, but I wonder if what is happening has something to do with forced release of energy. When water is formed from vapor, energy is released. In a normal cloud, the temperature has hit the dewpoint to form water; the temperature does not go up, but maintains the dewpoint temperature instead. In other words, water formation just never increases that temperature even though energy is released; this means wind can start up due to the conservation of energy rule, as that energy release must be expressed in some way.

In some instances, energy can be absorbed or released in a forced manner with water changing states. For example adding salt to ice absorbs heat by forcing the change from ice to water without using heat.

In a supercell and perhaps especially in a tornado, some sort of forced change of state from vapor to water is taking place, releasing huge amounts of energy that for whatever reason will not increase air temperature. This gets expressed in wind taking on angular momentum, increasing monumentally I believe in a tornado.

More Thoughts on the Greenbrier

More Thoughts on the Greenbrier

When I was first looking into The Greenbrier, there were a lot of internet reviews to be found about it that were frustratingly general about the casino, while I was looking for specifics such as table minimums. And I ran across news articles. But one thing began to stand out: the Greenbrier was not doing so good before the casino was in operation, but since then things have been hunky-dory. Articles pre-casino found plenty to grouse about in general, mostly having to do with the place dreaming up ways to add to your bill [nothing is cheap there, that's for sure anyway]. But sometimes even the food got bad reviews. Post-casino [mid-summer] reviews show a big improvement in sentiment. This is a mystery to me now, since I never saw the casino anywhere near busy, yet in general the casino is getting the credit for this improvement.

I strolled through without playing on arrival Sunday late afternoon, and played afternoons and evenings the next two days. The scene changed between
being clearly 'near empty' to sometimes 'somewhat active', never truly busy. The slots never got much action for sure, those being the potential big money maker of course. You just would think that they would be disappointed there that the place's capacity was just not being met.

I guess there are some explanations, such as my visit not being during a good time to get a good example of how busy it was most other times. There was a Mrs. America pageant going on, note Mrs. America not "Miss" America, and maybe that crowd did not contain a lot of gamblers. I sure saw no contestants in the casino. But somehow the casino itself is doing plenty well for itself, and of course if that is the case then it is helping operations in general. This article is typical.