Book Club: Poker Without Cards

[Cramulus]

So the newly formed Discordian Book Club has selected POKER WITHOUT CARDS as our book of the month. But instead of a month, we're going to do it in TWO WEEKS! (July 12th - July 25th)

So I printed this bad boy out and got lost in it for like two hours. I am really liking Poker Without Cards so far.

My initial impression - is that the author and I have very similar reading lists. 
 This might be a bit more effective on me if I hadn't read so much of it already. He covers a lot of the same ground as Illuminatus, the Art of Memetics, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence, etc

The author (Ben Mack) uses a lot of very terse, effective language to describe really complex ideas. Later, I'll probably come back to look up how he phrased things when re-explaining them to people.

what do you guys think so far?

[Elder Iptuous]

i'm really liking it so far....
i thought it came off a little abruptly as a 'mind map', and i was afraid the narrative was going to seem incidental. despite the fact that i am 40pp into it, and it still seems like he is 'setting the hook', it is effective....

also, i would like to take the opportunity to express that working in a cube farm does have some perks when your entering into a book club with pdf books.... 

[ZL 'Kai' Burington, M.S.]

There are some particular concepts that stick out in my mind (this the second time through for me), but I'll wait till the 27th like we all decided on.

[Cramulus]

There are some particular concepts that stick out in my mind (this the second time through for me), but I'll wait till the 27th like we all decided on.

oops - are we supposed to be waiting till the 27th?

   or are you waiting till then to post spoilers?

[Elder Iptuous]

too late, cram. you ruined it for the whole log....

[ZL 'Kai' Burington, M.S.]

There are some particular concepts that stick out in my mind (this the second time through for me), but I'll wait till the 27th like we all decided on.

oops - are we supposed to be waiting till the 27th?

   or are you waiting till then to post spoilers?

Spoilers, mostly, and I want to wait for everyone to finish it first.

[the last yatto]

the raw intro was almost ensuring it to win over my selection
which is a shame, as some of you previously said you had read this book before.
ill read it again as well, but im waiting for a hardback copy

so far it reminds me just how much emotion materialism  has

[Cain]

I just finished it (for the third time) this morning.  I previously read it a few years ago, but it was interesting to see how much I had forgotten.  Not masses of it, but bits and pieces.

I have some notes, but I'm going to re-read it and add more, and post them in this thread.  I might've done this today, only I haven't eaten a lot lately, and I'm feeling pretty light headed.  I would also be quoting extracts and I wouldn't want to do that before being fairly sure someone had read that far.

[Cain]

Any downloads from the links given here http://pokerwithoutcards.com/ should be legit.

[Cramulus]

What the does "intellishit" mean? Ben Mack uses it frequently but never explains. Contextually, I think it means "stupid crap that comes from thinking rationally" (from attaca).

Also - He keeps referencing this book by Crowley called Magick. Did he write a book with that title? I can find reference to Magick Without Tears, but nothing just called Magick.

thanks.

I've gotten enough warnings from comcast this month already. Don't wanna push it.

yeah they released it under a CC license. Cool, huh?

but wait - your ISP checks up to make sure your downloads are legal??? 

[Cain]

Intellishit means things which are internally coherent, but do not apply to anything real outside of their own structure.

There is a glossary at the end of the book.  Annoying in some respects, since you have to refer back and forth instead of just having the info there and then, but at least it exists.

I think he is referring to Book 4, Liber ABA, which is also sometimes called Magick.  This would make sense, since it is mostly to do with theory and practice, instead of philosophy or just theory alone.

[LMNO, PhD (life continues)]

Still reading.  Reserving judgement until I get further through it.

[fomenter]

i havent read much yet 

to do list - must read today

[Requia ☣]

/slight threadjack

yeah they released it under a CC license. Cool, huh?

very. I'm probably going to buy the hard copy too, as I'm rather enjoying it.

but wait - your ISP checks up to make sure your downloads are legal???

Well, I don't think they check every single download (at least I hope not!), as I'd be up to my neck in the damn warning things, but it would seem that whatever they have been informed by the copyright holder that should not be downloaded, (bad way of putting it, but I've not ate breakfast yet) they send out a snail mail 'digital millenium copyright omg uve been pwnd' style letter, informing you that any more breaches of this and they will pull the plug.

The funny thing is the book in question was part of a massive great big 13130 Sci Fi torrent. They totally ignored the other 2000 odd books, just one of the J K Rowling ones. Not the other 7 contained in there, just the latest one.

The mad thing is I was using a chain of proxys, tor & TMN.

the lesson I have learned from this is :

1. Are you fuck secured and hidden on the interbuts NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO.
2. For all illegal downloads, I'ma taking the laptop down the bar and using their unsecured network. suckers.
3. I fucking shit myself when I get caught!

1) Don't torrent through tor, it fucks with everyone using it, also doesn't work reliably, your torrent client has its own encryption protocols, use those.

2) Do you have a copy of this notice?  Comcast threatening to disconnect customers over dmca notices is new news to me.

3) Link to the torrent?

Back on topic: just started reading.  I think Robert is crazier than Richard.

[Requia ☣]

All I ever did was turn encryption on.  And make sure the ISP bill was in my roommate's name.