As usual, I am immersed in Jan Potocki's magnum opus on my way to work, and indeed while I am afforded a slender five minute break. In between the maya-like almost illusory fable, a number of yarns spun by Potocki, I come back to reality accosted by vulgar, obstinate, puerile and most impolite little people. My so-called "superiors" at that... place. They shout, scream, make animal noises, and look down on me in a kind of inverted snobbery. Their collective knowledge, wisdom and life experience amounts to virtually nothing by comparison to mine own. Yet these are the people in charge: clowns, brutes, savages. Ignorant teenagers. This is the very reason that this is Dark Age Britain, and not a more enlightened period of history. This is not Renaissance Italy, evidently. Why not let the chimps throw a tea party? Why not let these... people (if they can be called such) be in charge? Experience, kindness, wisdom, these things count as nothing here, in this country.
Tomorrow is the poker game, held by the people at work, hosted by the two thugs that run the place. It is a new game to me (for I do not gamble). Yet, this does however afford an apposite opportunity to conduct a further case study into cognitive symbiosis. I confess, I have not played poker since I was in my teens, when my twin brother and I would read one another's minds in order to gain a tactical advantage over our opponents. I have no twin brother now (for he is off in the Americas). So, I shall have to use what I have learnt from studying body language and psychology (a subject previously beneath me, but now one which I take an interest in). Most communication is unspoken. Moreover, I am a quick study, and, being a twin, I am fiercely competitive, especially when real returns are at stake.
I have been taking tips from the master of the game, Daniel Negreanu. As the late great savant Didier Deman once said, "It is only by imitating the masters that we may become masters ourselves." Research, knowledge, study. These things are important factors to win. Now, I am, by no stretch of the imagination, a mathematician, so I shall not be counting cards, but what I will be doing is playing a role, much as an actor or performance artist would do. At the same time I shall be looking for signs, unspoken communication, reading their body language, to gain a competitive advantage over these... people (if they can be called such - not having the capacity to reason). They don't read. They don't study. They play poker and computer games. I myself am guilty of such a sin (I play Empire TW, Rome TW and Medieval TW sometimes). Moreover, there is a problem. Tomorrow is my day off, which means I will probably be at the gig (a local get together of musicians), which means I will be hammered before I get there. (The game starts at 11 P.M.) Fortunately I have built up a resistance to all alcoholic beverages over the years, so long as I pace myself, eat well, and spend more time playing guitar than drinking, I should be fine. I have also considered the possibility of not even attending the gig, but spending this time productively, translating Latin. This will help keep my mind sharp, focused.
If I am honest, I actually can't stand poker, or gambling. Yet much like speculating on commodities or currencies, it is not gambling if you know the rules of the game well enough to tip the odds in your favour. One thing I must bear in mind is that it is just a game. Win or lose, one must always do so with grace. It is amicable, a relaxing time (indeed the only time) where we can meet and not have to issue or carry out orders in a work environment. I shall, as always, be impeccably well dressed for the occasion. One must always be presentable, always. There are the educated, and the uneducated. Those with knowledge, and those without. Yet as Manly P. Hall once said of Albert Pike, "The happy combination of a scholar and a truly delightful person. A person who had many friends, simply because he was friendly, and who had an almost unending sense of humour, though much of his life was burdened by most serious responsibilities... uniting learning with practical acumen, grace with power, and that imperious magnetism which only a genius can command."
Max.
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