Atlantic City

Well, that was pretty fun.

I spent the majority of Memorial Day weekend in AC with my friend from Delaware and his girlfriend. I went there a few years ago in the dead of winter, but was with my family so the Boardwalk wasn't open and no one wanted to gamble. Needless to say, the city isn't much fun without those two things.

It's interesting to see how the entire dynamic of a trip can change when a female is present. And not just any female, but a girlfriend. I'm glad she came though, because my friend could easily have lost more money if she wasn't there to stop him from gambling. I've been accused (unfairly, I think) of egging people on and convincing them to go further than they want.

So yeah, he didn't do so well. He won in one game called Sic Bo, which is basically betting on the rolls of dice - no, it's not craps, because it's only based on one roll. I found it amusing how many times he got carded. He's 25, but looks a lot younger, and everyone carded him - at blackjack, poker, even Sic Bo! Who the fuck even plays Sic Bo? I think even if he was younger than 21 they should have let him play that game.

I, on the other hand, did the best I've ever done in a casino! I made $300 dollars playing poker. I was afraid at first to play NL since I thought people would bet ridiculous amounts and I wouldn't be able to call, but I got some pretty good cards and was able to do fairly well.

My favorite hand was when I flopped a full house, and then turned quads! The poor Southern girl next to me also had a full house, so she lost a good amount of money to me :(

The scariest moment was when a guy went all-in for $90 and I only had trips. I guess calling ended up being a good play because he had trips too, just a lower kicker.

Yeah, so if you ever go to a casino, and have a little patience, I suggest you play poker. It's definitely your best bet. Oh, and sorry if you didn't understand those two previous paragraphs - I'm just excited about my hands and actually remember what I had for the first time.

Work Musings

I attended a training session at work today and my suspicions about the company were confirmed: most of the people are in "Gen-X" - born between 1963-1980.

10% (only 4 people) were in "Gen-Y" - me, another Indian guy, a knocked-up Hispanic woman, and a hot brunette who looks like she just graduated college.

The sad part was when the instructor told everyone if they didn't know a word, they could always go to urbandictionary.com. More than half the people in the room actually wrote it down! Really? People hadn't heard of the site? Yikes.
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I'm a big fan of all the free food at the company - free breakfasts on pay days, and free lunches for special occasions, like the monthly CEO talks or during training sessions. It comes out to free food at least 4 or 5 times a month. And that doesn't even count pizza during lunch meetings.
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Two managers in my group admitted to receiving more than 100 daily emails that they needed to personally respond to - ranging from 6am to 11pm at night.

My project lead was the only person in the training session who claimed to work more than 60 hours a week.

A Rose

- My friend's cell phone address book was filled with only people's first names, except for cases where there were two people with the same name. And for some reason, she had my full name too. I have no idea why and she just smiled when I asked her.

- My new project manager at work has something similar for his IM contact list. Mostly just first names, but then for me, it's full name.

- I work with a bunch of Indians, and they spell/say my name "Sumit." Really? Even when you're writing an email and it's spelled right in front of you? It's very annoying but I don't want to be an asshole and tell them. Not yet, anyway.