A Silent Worknight in Prague

It's a quiet night and I needed a bit of a break from poker so I thought about writing you.

It's been such a little amount of time since the last time I talked to you, so not much happened. I spend a majority of my time in my room (the living room) either sitting at my computer (working), or sleeping. It looks like that how it's going to be for quiet some time, until I go to Berlin in a week and a half.

Not that I mind to much. I get a little lonely from time to time, but I do have this huge compulsion to work. It's like a spring that slowly winds up and I can only release it by spending time working. I might not make enough to be super profitable, but I've got to try. The Internet is huge and vast and entertains me in the meantime.

I've been slowly watching the old MTV show "the maxx" I let myself watch one each day. It's free on youtube.com and kinda gritty but deep in thought. I also stumbled upon a web site that emails you pieces of books slowly. So every other day I get a small fraction of a book. Right now I'm reading a play called "The Importance of Being Earnest". I haven't gotten to far into it yet, it's a bit dry, but at least it's something new.

I go out to eat almost every other day, Prague has some many wonderful little cafe restaurants. The food is amazingly cheap and usually high quality. For the price I expect to pay at Denny's, I get meal of home cooked quality and a half pint of beer. Beer is cheaper here then soda and water, and they won't serve you tap so I usually get one. Today though, I opted for an orange juice. I really don't know what will happen when this place moves to the Euro, but I know I'll be sad I can never again get a $2 large gellato sundae.

Today I made it over to the Charles bridge. I had been there twice before, but at night when all the tourist stands were closed. By night the bridge looks better, old statues of saints line the sides are are lited in a dramatic fashion. The castle glows in the background. But during the day, it all looks worn down and the place is mobbed by tourists. My favorite street performer was still the guy who had about 30 Crystal glasses all lined up before him each a different note and he would play them like a piano, using all his fingers, and you would hear the soft humming of seven angel notes slowly mix themselves into the air. The notes are so soft it's hard to hear when they begin or stop, they just fade into and around themselves.

I bought myself my first keepsake. It's a leather talisman. The leather is folded into some intricate knots and then treated with something to make it hard and stiff with a lacquered shine. The result looks like wood that has been impossibly carved, but it's lighter then expected to the touch. The man told me that the leather would also absorb smells if kept with anything. I might later buy some vanilla or mint extract to soak it in.

The housing seach goes slowly. Places do not respond to my emails and when they do, they often offer me places without Internet even though I told them exactly what I needed. If we do not find a place by next week, we will continue to live here. It's not a bad place, but it's also not the ideal.

I need to get myself an alarm clock. My schedule has been all over the place recently, with me trying to jam work in when I can. I really need to make a set schedule. It's difficult, when the shops are open during the day the dance clubs at night, and the best poker at 3am. It's like I have to choice two of the three. Work and play, but no sunlight. Sun and play, but crappy work. Or Work from early morning til midday, eat dinner at lunch and sleep from afternoon to midnight.

I will figure something out. All I need to do... 100$ a day. I keep chanting that goal to myself. If I can figure a way to do that (preferably at 6 hours a day). It is possible in theory, but I am uncertain of the changing tides of casinos. I am by far not good enough to be playing for profit without the bonuses. Are there enough to sustain me for a year? That's nearly 70 bonuses a year. If I can find them all. I would be set for years to come. Hopefully by then I want to have saved up enough to move to something new. With each hour I play poker, I get better. It's still so risky, so easily I can not make it, but I have done so well this first month. *cross fingers*

Everything they tell me is that luck doesn't exist, it's all math, but still sometimes I look out my window on my left and I make a tiny fraction of a prayer to my statue of lady luck. It's a life size window-edge statue of a girl in a dress holding flowers.