Mocca Gallery

Motionless at 70 miles an hour
No reason to daydream
Days without walls
Never hurrying
Busy with no plans
Joyous intentional pointlessness

I came across this picture the other day and decided to post it here. This was taken in 1984 at the Frontier Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. I was 27 at the time. I was working days at Summa Corporation, the old Howard Hughes company, and playing poker every night.

I’m playing Pot Limit Texas Hold’em with $2-$5-$10 blinds. Those are stacks of green $25 chips in front of me, maybe $2500 worth.

Tournaments weren’t as popular then as they are now. Most of us played cash games only. We had a regular game going at the Frontier. Siegfried & Roy played twice a night and the show line went right past the poker room. It was a great game. Most of the players who won the World Series of Poker in the early days came and played with us.

Bill Smith, Don Williams, Cowboy Wolford and Bobby Hoff played there every day. I’ve played against Johnny Moss, Puggy & JC Pearson, Tom McEvoy, Jack Keller, Berry Johnston, Jack Straus, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, David Skalansky, Brad Daugherty, Russ Hamilton and Bones Berland. Lots of colorful characters and good memories.

So, I’m working on a programming project.
It’s going smoothly.
I have a series of tasks to complete.
I’m thinking it will be great when I’m finished.

Then I get stuck.
Something doesn’t work the way it’s suppose to.
My mind is already three steps ahead.
But I’m stuck on this damn problem.
I feel frustrated, angry, confused, annoyed, irritated.
This shouldn’t be happening.
I’m wasting time.

Then I remember.
These bad feelings are indicators.
Like gauges on a car’s dashboard.
These indicators tell me I’m thinking about this all wrong.
Problems are wonderful.
It’s so easy to forget that.

What I have to do is stop thinking three steps ahead.
Just focus on the problem that is in front of me, here and now.
Apparently, the way I think things are, is not the way they are.
I may not need to change the thing, I may need to change my mind.

This is really a fabulous opportunity to learn something new.
When things go smoothly it’s because there is no mystery in them.
I’m stuck now because there is something I need to learn.
But I don’t know what it is.
If I knew, I wouldn’t be stuck.

So, take a deep breath, and relax.
Let’s see if we can figure this out.
And don’t worry about the time.
I always figure it out.
It may take a few minutes.
It may take a few days.
But when we’re done, we’ll know something new.

I’ll know I’m done when I feel good about it.
That is my gauge.
When I feel good again, the lesson has been learned.
Class Dismissed.

Imagine waking up, looking down at the foot of the bed, and seeing this… pretty sweet.