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How'd your trip to Barca go? Both in terms of the poker and any cool places you went.

Originally Posted by ImSavy

How'd your trip to Barca go? Both in terms of the poker and any cool places you went.

Ok so I had this idea that I'd give a trip report on the whole thing but I wanted to avoid going into too much detail so I put it off forever. Now that I'm wired on caffeine and procrastinating with poker I'm typing away in this box.

In short, Barcelona was awesome and is currently my favorite destination of the world.

Going from Barcelona to Paris was almost depressing (how contradictory to my so called 'big realization'!). Though for some I imagine the opposite would hold true, so to each their own.

Much different from Barcelona, but also a place I really love on a different level, but not necessarily any less was Bruges (Brugges/Bruge etc?). The vibe there was very community like, loving, and cheerful. I came away from this trip with a much more grounded sense of self and vision of what I want my future to look like. Lot's of introspection and life chats with the GF were had.

Overall the whole trip was much needed. I hadn't taken 2 weeks off in awhile and tend to get consumed in what I'm doing so stepping out of the office was a relief. It feels good to be back on the grind though, and I've taken up a couple new hobbies (woah!) which is something I had put off for too long...

...I'll extend this post by giving a small update on what I'm currently doing outside of poker.

1) Training Brazilian Ju-Juitsu at a marshal arts academy - this is awesome because it's such a unique learning process, and in a lot of ways reminds me of poker. A couple classes in I found myself starting to see how game theory could apply to high level competition. here is so much more to this game than just rolling around on the floor. Aside from that, I've always had a bit of a suppressed fighter inside of me, so I find this is a semi-good outlet for that. On the other hand I'm thinking the different forms of striking may be best for that, because from what I understand from my very limited understanding, is that to be successful in BJJ requires an almost meditative approach where the aggression is very controlled and smooth - raw power just won't cut it. So after training BJJ for awhile I may pick up different formats. At the moment I feel trying everything at once may be a bit counterproductive to growth - kind of like trying to learn the nuances of sit and gos, cash, and PLO all at once when first jumping into poker being a sure way to halt progress.

2) Painting - I'm pretty narrowly focused on abstract expressionism and as of now can't see myself creating anything else regarding what 'labels' my art. This one I'm learning on my own through experimenting and studying other works. I do plan on looking up instruction on techniques etc. through online resources to expand my knowledge though don't have any plans to take classes at this time. My brothers girlfriend took art in college and will be spending some time at my house in the coming weeks working on different pieces so no doubt I'll be learning from her as well. As far as other mediums go I'm heading to the store later today to pick up some markers and foam boards to work on adding depth to shapes. Here's an example of what inspired that for those interested:

http://www.favpics.net/wp-content/up...t-for-sale.jpg

Also regarding daven's questions about SNE, I don't put volume goals in anymore. I simply just try to learn more and apply what I learn with grinding in a consistent way. Whatever amount of points I get at the end of that is what it is.

This is getting really long so I'll leave it at that. All the best to all