Wolves Can Shuffle Cards.

Adjusting To New Things

2011-07-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

Apparently, things are going pretty well at my new job. I say that because by my fourth day there, the head of the project looked at me and said, "I've been hearing about the great job you've been doing for us."

I met our clients for the first time on Friday (unheard of at my old job) and things have been getting more ludicrous ever since.

Take today for example. I was informed that I'm in charge of five projects, two of which are ending on Friday. The other three hit on August 12th. How much do I know about these projects?

Absolutely nothing.

On top of that, I've been repeatedly told that a) I'm going to be the subject matter expert for the main part of our current project and b) the eventual goal is for me to assume all client interaction duties for the entire project to free up the project head to do program management stuff.

I also sat down with the project head to discuss some updates to a design we're working on earlier today. When he stated that I'd have to get a specific computer program on my computer in order to work on the designs, I told him I'd already done that. He cackled like a kid that's gotten away with a crime, said, "I love working with you!" and gave me a high five.

Have I mentioned I've only been at this job for a little over a week?

Currently, I feel like I'm surfing on a tidal wave while I get hit in the face with an information water hose at my job. That's not really surprising given the short time I've been there. When I'm not there, however, I'm constantly making mental adjustments because the new gig is so ridiculously unlike my old job. There isn't any "proving yourself" period before you get to do different things at the new place. They throw stuff at you and if you catch it, they keep on finding new stuff for you to do to see if you can handle it. It's pretty incredible, but it's definitely requiring me to make adjustments. A couple of specific things that I'm having to adjust to on the fly are:

1) Everyone is friendly at my new job. That's a ridiculously crazy thing to occur because of how short our deadlines are and how much work people do, but it's the truth.

2) Nobody's questioning my abilities, holding me back, or trying to make me fit into a role that I don't like.

3) There's no pecking order anywhere. If you need something, you find the person that knows about it/has it/knows who knows it or has it and you talk to them.

4) Everything is employee-driven (i.e. "Here's this thing we want you to do. Go take care of it and if you have any questions, just ask.") and based on performance. There's little to no politics because everyone's in the same boat. I'll be asked to help out on other people's projects (or assigned to them) whenever I have time and/or I'm needed. That all translates into everyone working on the same thing (getting everything done as quickly and efficiently as possible to put the best product out there) and there's little to no time for bullshit.

5) It's EASY. This freaks me out to no end right now. I'm even doing busy work (quality assurance work on broken links on webpages) and I don't mind. I sat down with another business analyst and we talked about an updated web page design today. In the middle of it, I was bowled over mentally because I realized that I was being treated as an equal and he cared about my input. While the people I used to work for were awesome people, the pecking order there was ridiculously obvious and there was little chance for promotion or more responsibility in the project and little to no recognition for plain ol' getting things done.

At my new job, they had an ice cream social last Thursday because one of their contracts celebrated it's eighth anniversary. They have an Employee of the Week feature on the company web portal (I already signed up for it...yay, networking!), and even though there isn't a lot of banter and talking around the cubicles (mainly due to time constraints and high cubicle walls), I'm noticing that other employees are still legitimately interested when they ask how my weekend went and what I did.

Back to how easy the job is for me. It's very hard for me to explain the emotions that go along with this revelation. I busted my hump for three years at a job where I had to literally sit down and fight myself to do my work every. single. day. in. the. office. Three years of that...

...and I walk into this job and within a week I get more recognition, more responsibility, more variety, and more things to learn on the job than I've gotten in the same time frame. How?

Just by being me and doing my job.

And I can handle everything they've thrown at me so far. Pretty easily.

There just aren't words, you know? I keep calling my parents and talking to my wife about what's going on at my job every couple of days because things are changing so rapidly on multiple levels. It's such a huge, dramatic shift that I spent a decent part of last weekend stressing myself out because I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. But, I think the shoes are either too comfortable on the feet that are kicked up on a desk to drop or that they've already been taken off while I get to run around barefoot. I just haven't fully noticed that part yet. That's what it feels like at this point, anyway.

There's other stuff going on: we're working on getting a new car (and I'm humbled yet again by the generosity of my friends because I'm borrowing a car for a month or so in order to buy another car during the August sales period to get a better price on it and the owner of the car gave it to me with no questions asked), my daughter finished her Kindergarten Aptitude Test and we're waiting on her scores (I'm not worried at all), my son is turning into a complete and total Mario Brothers fanboy (we're borrowing Mario Kart and Mario Galaxy from friends at the moment), my wife is slowly recovering from her car accident (nothing serious has cropped up, but she does have days where she's uncomfortable), and we're working on cleaning up the house and sorting out our stuff in the storage unit. Our container garden is hanging in there (we've picked some tomatoes, our kale and carrots are growing nicely, our yellow peppers might actually fruit, and our basil plant is going bonkers), and everyone is slowly adjusting to me being away at work during the day (although I still miss my kids a boatload).

My sister posted this the other day on Facebook: "When you are standing on your own on the mountain, it's really nice to see a friendly wave from a nearby peak."

I have to agree. I just have to get used to hanging out with other mountain climbers, hot air balloonists, pilots, people with jetpacks, and anyone else who's jury rigged a way to get up here. It's a really nice feeling and I think I'll stay here for awhile.

Boxes

2011-04-22T22:00:00.001-07:00

"Who would condescend to strike down the mere things that he does not fear? Who would debase himself to be merely brave, like any common prizefighter? Who would stoop to be fearless--like a tree? Fight the thing that you fear. You remember the old tale of the English clergyman who gave the last rites to the brigand of Sicily, and how on his death-bed the great robber said, 'I can give you no money, but I can give you advice for a lifetime: your thumb on the blade, and strike upwards.' So I say to you, strike upwards, if you strike at the stars." -- G.K. Chesterton (The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare)

It takes a lot to break out of a box. The material of the box doesn't really matter. It can be made of cardboard, emotion, thought, concrete, first impressions, or what we were taught when we were children. Most people, when given the task of "getting out of a closed box" approach it thinking that they have to use force. That idea is its own box, honestly. Thinking that there's only one solution, one way, one step, or one method.

The answer to the question "How do you get out of a box?" is radically simple, yet we're usually so caught up in being inside the box that we don't consider it.

To get out of a box, you open it.

That's it. That's the solution.

Instead of sitting there saying, "How do I open this box?", just go open it. It might take some doing, but it'll happen. It always does.

The Movie Script That Is My Life

2011-04-09T18:41:00.000-07:00

A common question that I'm asked is how my wife and I met and ended up getting married. I usually tell people that the story is "ridiculously impossible" and they, usually, are pretty skeptical (as I'm sure some people who are reading this now are). To make sure that I provided the full story, and that I didn't leave out any details, I had my wife read through what's written below to confirm I had everything correct. Now, get comfy. This isn’t a short story.

I will state for the record, non-official as it may be, that most people would say that certain events in the story of how they met their significant other were "crazy" or "unbelievable". The story of how my wife ended up as my wife hasn’t ever considered the word "normal" and probably doesn't even believe in it. It still causes me to stop every so often, after nine and a half years of marriage, and my brain still has to verify that I'm still married and my wife really is my wife. This thought process occurs not because of some sort of mental issue, though some people may say I have a few of those, but it's because my brain remembers the sequence of events that I'm about to review for you, Dear Reader, and it still has issues believing that things actually happened the way they did.

Our story begins, as some stories do, with my parents. They asked a question when I was a Senior in high school and although I answered in the affirmative very quickly, I still can't believe they asked it. They said:

Do you want to go spend Spring Break with your sister at college to see what it’s like?

(See what I mean about this being pretty ridiculous? I've only started the story and I know some people are already saying things like, Dude, NO WAY. Seriously? Yes. I'm as serious as a heart attack. Everything I'm telling you here is true. I'm not making anything up.)

So, after it was rapidly settled that I wanted to go hang out with my sister and her friends at college, for a whole week with no parental supervision, time flew rather quickly and soon I found myself driving the eight hours or so (one way) with my parents to do just that. There are a number of highlights I still remember from that trip, which include:

- Helping to strike a theater set (which was the interior of a Victorian house right down to the crown molding, if I remember correctly) in two hours.

- Falling asleep in my sister's 8am history class (and being elbowed by her repeatedly to make me stay awake).

- Having a home-cooked dinner made by a gay ballet dancer during the time he wasn't needed to understudy during a rehearsal for the dance recital where my sister was the stage manager.

- Being allowed into the bar where one of her friends was the bouncer.

- Waking up to drunk people playing loud music in the main room of her apartment at 2am because the bar kicked them out and they wanted to keep the party going (and having the boyfriend of an upstairs housemate yelling at them to quit it before bodily harm occurred).

- Going along with my wife's boyfriend at the time to pick up his new mountain bike.

- And, last but not least, meeting my wife.

Now, usually when guys talk about meeting their wives for the first time, they have some sort of experience where they see them somewhere, they talk for a bit, and they exchange information to stay in contact or whatever.

Wrong! That’s too standard for us!

One morning, while I was staying with my sister, we were hanging out in the upstairs kitchen of the townhouse that her and her friends were renting for that year. There were four of us sitting at the table talking and my wife shuffled out of her bedroom. (Yes, really.) When my wife is really tired, she’s not awake enough to walk properly. So, her feet scuff along the floor until that happens. Add in, that she had bed head in full effect, her eyes barely open because she was tired, she had her glasses on, and that she was hunched over with her bathrobe tucked around her as tight as possible so she stayed warm. I imagine anyone reading this can see why my wife still doesn't believe me when I tell her I thought she looked “cute” when I first saw her. To be honest, I'm rather surprised she remembers the incident mainly because her brain didn't recognize that there were people sitting at the kitchen table until she was halfway past it. That's when she stopped, looked over, stuck one hand out of her bathrobe and did a tiny, rapid wave with her hand before she shuffled off to the bathroom.

Heck of an introduction, isn't it?

I know I hung out with my wife and the rest of my sister's friends a bunch that week, but that's the scene that I remember the most. (Gee, I wonder why?)

After my visit was over, my parents asked me how things went and what I did. According to them, because I honestly don’t remember the conversation, I talked a bit here and there about my experiences, but then I said, "But, DAD! There's this GIRL!" and I proceeded to wax poetic about my wife for a solid 20 minutes or so. Not that I was interested in her or anything.

No, not me.

Not at all.

I didn't see my wife or talk to her for around two years after I first met her. That happened when she and my sister graduated from college. We only saw each other briefly then and we didn't say much to each other beyond "Hello". However, we kept tabs on each other through my sister, in a "How is he/she doing?" manner, which would become a pattern for the next couple of years.

Two years after she and my sister graduated from college, my wife moved in with my family for the summer while she was in grad school. She worked temp jobs, hung out with my sister and her friends, and got ready for her next year of grad school. I spent some time hanging out with my sister and her friends, hanging out with my own friends, and suffering from a full-blown case of unrequited love for my wife. Here are two important interactions that happened during those couple of months:

One weeknight, my wife told all of us goodnight and headed off to bed right as I came down the stairs. I let her pass me by, watched her go into her room, and sighed loudly as I watched the door close. My father, who watched this whole scene play out, looked at me and said, "Forget it Drew. It'll never happen." Then, went back to reading his newspaper.

On another night, my father and I were talking about various things and my wife was brought up. We discussed the fact that she was single and my Dad ended the conversation by saying, "I just wish she could end up with someone nice."

I'll point out here that I was dating someone at the time. Note that I wasn't pursuing my wife at all (I was in a relationship and it's not like I had a chance, right?), but all of this was still going on.

In August, I headed off to college and my wife went back to grad school. During this time, there was a legitimate discussion between us where we almost became roommates. (She would have slept in the bed under my loft.) My wife was looking for a place to live to finish her externships for grad school. The only reason it didn't happen is because her mother visited my apartment and, not surprisingly, didn't approve of the quality of the living conditions. My wife drove down to my apartment for my 21st birthday party in September and then we saw each other again in October, when my sister and brother-in-law got married. We hung out a bit with other people, went clubbing with a group, and I found out she was in a relationship. My relationship, interestingly enough, fell apart right around that time. But, again, my wife wasn't an option for dating because she was out of my league. We also tried to see Type O Negative on Halloween, but unfortunately those plans fell through. Then, in November, a friend of mine from college and I hung out for an evening with my wife in her apartment which was a short drive from my college.

Once my wife graduated from grad school in December of that year, we went back to mainly staying in contact through my sister. We graduated from the "How is he/she doing?" questions to talking on the phone every once in awhile when I was hanging out with my sister and/or brother-in-law during the various times when I was visiting them on the weekends. This situation continued apace until roughly a year and a half later. Around then, my sister passed along my wife's email address and we started writing each other every so often to keep tabs on what was going on in each of our lives.

In January of 1999, my girlfriend at the time broke up with me. I'm bringing up this incident because of a set of events that, in hindsight, are rather amusing that occurred that night. On the drive home from my now ex-girlfriend's apartment, I was trying to make myself feel better, so I said out loud, "Oh, well. There’s always Allison." I chuckled at my wit because, in my opinion, there was no way in hell I’d have any chance to date my wife at that time. What a great joke! So, I headed back to my parents' house, where I was staying for the weekend, and I broke the news to my parents. After expressing their disappointment about what happened, my mother looked at me, and without me saying a word about what I said earlier she said, "Well, there's always Allison." We all chuckled and then my parents really laughed when I told them I'd said the same thing earlier.

Then, I called up my sister and brother-in-law and broke the news to them. After offering condolences and without a word of what had transpired earlier, my sister promptly said, "Well, there’s always Allison." Another fit of giggling ensued and laughter quickly followed when I confirmed that every member of my family had said, word for word, the exact same joke about my wife and me. Immediately after this conversation, my sister handed the phone to my wife because she was visiting for the weekend! Ay, caramba! Luckily, my wife didn't hear what my sister had said! Phew! We proceeded to catch up and I informed her of the demise of my relationship. The very next thing she asked me was when I was going to visit her in Delaware.

Looking back on it now, the timing of that question is utterly hilarious, but it was perfectly innocent because neither one of us was considering dating the other person. We decided that I would visit for a few days during my Spring Break in March and we hung up the phone.

For the next couple of weeks, my wife and I exchanged emails. We talked about my visit and what was going on in each of our lives. It was the most we had communicated to each other at any point since we were introduced. On March 9th, 1999 I drove from my parents' house in Virginia up I-95 to Delaware to visit my wife. The trip took me approximately three hours and it was a fairly easy drive. She lived in an apartment complex about five minutes off of the highway, so getting there was a cinch.

I surprised her at the door with a bouquet of flowers. This was done with no ulterior motive whatsoever. I was just being nice as I generally am with my friends. When I called my parents to let them know I had arrived, the following conversation ensued:

Me (to my Mom on the phone): Yeah, it was an easy drive. I don't know if I'm staying here overnight or if I'll be driving back later today.

My wife (very firmly): You're staying here tonight.

Me (after a slight, surprised pause): Okay, I guess I'm staying here tonight.

Yet again, this conversation was 100% innocuous. My wife has repeatedly told me over the years that she stated what she did simply because she knew I had driven three hours to visit her and driving six hours in one day was an utterly ridiculous notion when I could crash at her apartment.

After hanging out for a little bit, we jumped in a car, grabbed a bite to eat, and played pool for a few hours. After heading back to my wife's place, we ended up snuggling on her couch with her head on my chest.

Now, stop for a minute and consider how it would feel to snuggle with someone that you've had a crush on for four years. Yeeeeeah. My brain had a train of thought similar to the following:

Breathe. Relax. Keep your cool. She doesn't know and if you relax, you'll be fine. Breathe. Just relax and everything will be fine.

Meanwhile, since her head was lying on my chest, my wife could hear my heart rate skyrocketing and its attempt to mimic a jackhammer.

I'm smooth with the ladies, can you tell?

Regardless of the situation, or perhaps because of it, we ended up kissing and we started dating. The next day we had our "first date" (which was a dinner of pizza, Pepsi, and sushi) and things snowballed from there.

In October of 1999, my wife moved from Delaware into my parents' house in Virginia.

In May of 2000, we moved into our first apartment.

In September of 2000, I arrived home late at night, got my wife out of bed to "check out the things" I picked up from my ex-girlfriend that she wanted to give me (the legitimate reason I was late getting home that night), used petting one of our cats as an excuse to get down on one knee, and proposed. That happened with the following conversation:

Me: There's one other thing I have to show you.

Allison: What?

Me (holding up a ring): This.

*My wife takes the ring out of my hands, looks at it for a bit, doesn't recognize it, and gives me a confused "I don’t know what this is" look*

Me: Marry me?

My wife nodded her head and whimpered happily while I slid the ring onto her finger. I still giggle over the fact that I proposed to my wife when she was in her bathrobe. For some reason, I find it very fitting for our relationship.

(Fun side note: When we broke the news of our engagement, the most common phrase we heard was, "It’s about time!")

On October 20th, 2001 my wife and I were married among family and friends. We've stayed that way, happily, for over nine years and we're still going strong. I plan on updating this sentence in some fashion every year for the rest of my life.

So, there you have it. One of the most convoluted, you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me stories that I've ever encountered. Especially since I lived through it.

I won't complain about the results, though. Not in a million years.

Tomato Stew

2011-01-28T20:46:00.000-08:00

This post contains a recipe for my homemade version of "tomato stew". That's not really what it is, but I'll get to that in a minute. When I sat down to write this post, which was requested by a friend of mine, I realized that I'd have to explain a few things. Please note that when I write "explain", I mean "write about in depth with some possible rambling" and when I write "a few things" it means "possibly write an entire treatise on homemade cooking".

You've been warned. Onward!

The genesis for this post actually happened roughly a year and a half ago. I wrote out a couple of paragraphs on making pasta sauce and that sat in a file on my computer for a long time. I eventually scrapped it because I wasn't doing anything with it. Then, after posting about "my awesome lunch" on Facebook, I was asked for the recipe.

Here's where we run into our first dilemma and roadblock.

Most of the "standard stuff" that I cook is made up on the spot. There's no recipe and there's no preparation other than saying, "Oh, that needs to be made." I don't state these things to dissuade anyone who wants to learn how to cook or to discourage people from asking me about my awesome food. Far from it. However, that does mean that when I attempt to write out how I do things, it means I'll be doing that at least partially in narrative form.

Righto. Let's begin somewhere and get on with it.

The first thing I should state is that if you're going to make the dish below, it's not officially a stew. Truthfully, it's a pasta sauce. This can be confusing to some people because once I start listing ingredients for it, eyebrows might raise and people will be dumbfounded because they've never considered putting some of the things I have in my pasta sauce. Generally, when people are asked what they put in their pasta sauce, they generally say "meat" and that's about it. That means we're going rather far afield of "normal" for a section of the culinary population here.

The second thing that I'll state is that if you make the dish below, you'll be dealing mostly with fresh ingredients. That means instead of wrangling a bunch of cans you'll be sorting out items of various colors and even one or two that resembles a small, leafy sea monster. In other words, it's entirely possible that you'll be able to save a small kingdom from leafy danger and have a lovely meal at the same time.

Lastly, please do not let the large set of ingredients deter you from giving this a shot. I've listed the smaller amounts of ingredients first and then the larger set. However, the "whittled down" recipe is going to give you enough sauce for two meals for three people or so. I generally make this sauce in large amounts and then freeze it in gallon bags in my standalone freezer. That's not always the case, hence the smaller version, but that's generally the status quo.

Now, the fun part. Generally, if I was going to tell you want to put in this dish to suit your own tastes, I'd be very vague (i.e. "put some meat in there"). That's mainly because pasta sauce is one of the most versatile dishes on the planet. If I ever need to clean out my fridge from leftovers, then pasta sauce is a decent idea. I don't generally do that (and I'm rather glad because I'd have things like rice, tuna salad, or soy sauce in my pasta sauce. While I'm generally adventurous on a culinary way, I'll be skipping that idea, thanks), but that should give anyone reading this a general idea of the consistency of my pasta sauce. "Hearty" is a very appropriate adjective.

Here's a list of ingredients that I generally throw into my pasta sauce when I make it:

Carrots
Kale
Onion
Mushrooms
Meat (Usually hamburger or bratwurst. Bacon and chicken are also solid options.)
Garlic
Celery

Please note that these ingredients aren't required. Other possible ingredients are:

Peppers (green, red, yellow, or orange)
Scallions
Bok Choy
Jalapenos (regular or smoked)
Any other vegetables you want to toss in there

You can see why I call this "stew" at this point, yes?

Okay. Here's the "recipe" if I'm making everything from scratch:

Here's the list of what you're going to need:
A couple of 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes
Meat (if you want it)
Veggies (these are NOT OPTIONAL)
Olive oil
Red wine
Sugar, Jam, Honey, or Maple Syrup
Spices (I usually use garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper, oregano, ground cayenne or chipotle pepper, and basil. Rosemary and thyme are also possible options.)

Small recipe (for a 6 quart pot):
2-3 28 oz. cans of tomatoes
.5 to 1 pound of meat
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
3-5 mushrooms
3-5 stalks of kale
3-5 cloves of garlic

Large recipe (for a stock pot):
6 28 oz. cans of tomatoes
2 pounds of meat
3-5 carrots
3-5 stalks of celery
1 package of mushrooms
1 entire bunch of kale
Approximately 1 head of garlic

Step 1 - Cut up the veggies. I generally start with the carrots and cut them in thin, but not paper thin slices. The larger carrot sections get halved and sliced. All of the other veggies get sliced in a similar size. The kale, if you're going to include it, gets rinsed. Then, I separate the leaves from the stalks, rip the leaves into bite size pieces, and then slice the stalks.

Important note: Put the kale stalks with the onions and the kale leaves with the softer veggies like mushrooms after everything is sliced. Keeping those two separate is important.

Step 2 - Get a large pot. If you're just making sauce for the evening, a 6 quart pot is a good idea. If you're planning on freezing some sauce, break out a stock pot. Trust me.

Step 3 - If you're going to use meat, then cut it up when it's raw and cook it in the pot. If you're using bacon, then cook it in whole strips in the pot and move them around until they're done. Remove the meat and drain off as much fat, if any, that you want to remove.

Step 4 - Add in some olive oil on top of the fat that's in the pan.

Step 5 - Saute the onions, carrots, celery, and kale stalks on medium heat until the onions are partially translucent. Then, add the mushrooms kale leaves, and garlic. Please note that the kale leaves are going to take up most of the pot when the second part of this step is done. That's fine. They'll cook down. Stir the vegetables constantly.

Step 6 - When the onions are mostly to fully translucent, add the tomatoes. Stir the contents of the pot well and scrape the bottom of the pot to ensure that the vegetables are mixed well with the tomatoes.

Step 7 - Add the spices. I usually use liberal amounts of oregano, garlic powder, and basil. Three or four shakes of salt from a salt shaker for the small pot and eight to ten for the stock pot. Use a similar amount of black pepper. Next, two or three small taps of cayenne or chipotle pepper.

Step 8 - Add a splash of red wine and a small dollop (for the 6 quart pot) or half a standard spoon (stock pot) of the honey/sugar/maple syrup/jam. Stir everything in thoroughly.

Step 9 - Turn heat to medium high until bubbles start to appear. Reduce heat to medium and let simmer for at least a half hour for the 6 quart pot. The stock pot, I simmer for two to three hours.

Step 10 - Sample sauce and season to taste.

You can either make pasta and use the sauce that way or eat it as a "stew" by eating a bowl of it with nothing else. I highly recommend having Parmesan cheese with it.

By the way, if you live with people that generally don't eat vegetables a possible idea is to take this sauce once it's cooled, stick it in a food processor or blender, and puree it. Generally, the veggies blend in with the tomatoes and no one has any idea they're eating any vegetables.

If anyone reading this has any questions about the recipe, feel free to ask. I hope you enjoy it!

Interviewing Skills

2011-01-08T18:24:00.000-08:00

I had an interview recently, and I have a few more coming up because I'm looking for a new challenge and to take the next step in my career. When I sat down to write this post, I was just going to write up my interview to get my own thoughts out to review them, but then I realized that it's highly possible that some people who will read this don't have the interview skills that I do, so I thought I'd write down my thought process, what I do during an interview, and so forth. Strap in, this is going to take a bit.

Since we're going to be talking about how I act during an interview and what I do when I go to one, I'm going to have to explain why I do what I do. So, let's start out with the most basic rule for interviewing:

Rule #1: Information Is The Most Important Thing

When I find a job that I'm interested in, or when a recruiter contacts me and sends me a job description, there are two things I do when I read about it:

1. Look to see if I'm really interested in applying for the position
2. Scouring what I'm reading for every little piece of information I can glean from it.

Right off the top of my head without looking at anything, I want: The name of the company, the official job title, the skills they're looking for, the name of the organization I'll be working with (i.e. who the contract is with), and how closely my skills match everything on the job description. Then, I take everything that isn't standard or descriptive text and I go look it up on the Internet. If I'm contacted by a recruiter, then I might get even more information. Getting the name of the person you're interviewing with is, usually, a gold mine. The more you know about the company and what you're interviewing for, the bigger the advantage you have when you go for the interview. In other words...

Rule #2: Do Your Homework

For the interview I did recently, I had three different interviews: I had the pre-screen with the recruiter, I had the phone interview, and then I had the in-person interview. I did the pre-screen without doing much beyond looking at the job description they sent me because it was very basic and I wanted more information. Once that was done and I found out what else I was going to deal with, for both the phone interview and the in-person interview, I read the company's website. When I state "I read the company's website", I mean I spent at least an hour going through the company website reading everything I can click on. Please note I did that for the phone interview and for the in-person interview. Why? Rule #1. Also, the second time I went through the website, I paid attention to different parts of the site than I did during my first read through it. I do this sort of thing because I want an advantage when I interview with a company. They've had time to review my resume and they have a general idea of what I've done and who I might be. That means that in order to stand on equal footing with them, I have to know, at minimum, what the company does and how it presents itself. But, studying the company allows me to do something more important.

Rule #3: Always Remember YOU Are Interviewing THEM Too

Interviewing is never a one-way street. I don't care if a company offers me a boatload of cash and great benefits if the building I'm interviewing in has bare white walls and the employees look like they'd rather drink antifreeze than be at work. Take the time to really think about what kind of company you want to work for. Do you care about what kind of dress code there is at the office? Does the amount you have to travel matter? There are a number of questions to consider, so really sit down and think about it. If you honestly don't know, ask someone for help. If nothing else, there are books in the library about figuring this sort of thing out or you could ask a friend (Hi, howya doin?) to be a sounding board. Always keep in mind that working for a certain company is a choice. If you really aren't interested, go look somewhere else. However, there's one aspect of interviewing a company that's very important where the three rules above help out tremendously.

Rule #4: Always Ask Them Questions

By studying the company that you're interviewing, you can write down questions to ask the person that's interviewing you. Usually, but not always, an interviewer will say something like, "Do you have any questions for me?". A lot of people either ask generic questions or don't ask any questions at all. That is a HORRIBLE mistake. The entire point of an interview is to showcase yourself and your skills. One of the biggest, most important things to do during an interview is to show that you're interested in the position and the company. The easiest, fastball-down-the-middle way to show that is to ask detailed questions about the position and the company. Where do you get that information?

The company website. ;)

During the phone interview with the company I'm waiting to hear from, I asked a question about training. There are two reasons I did that:

1. Because I honestly wanted to know more about it and why the company was so focused on it.
2. Because a large part of their "About Our Company" section on their website talked about training.

So, I asked something similar to, "I read on your website that your company focuses on training. It mentioned [Example A] and [Example B]. Can you talk a bit about why training is so important to your company?"

This tells the interviewer that: a) I read their website, b) I paid attention to what I was reading, c) I took the time to really go through their website, and d) I want to know more about the company. I will guarantee that 75-90% of the people they interview don't ask about training during the phone interview. What that does is it makes me stand out and makes me look awesome. Which are two of my main goals during an interview.

Now, let's talk about my in-person interview. Generally, I want to be well-rested and get a decent to good night's sleep. Unfortunately, my kids prevented that from happening, but I didn't let that slow me down. ;) When I gathered everything to get ready to go to work, here's what I had with me for the interview:

A leather binder (inside: four copies of my resume (one for each interviewer and another one just in case), a pen, and a pad of paper (which had my written questions on it)), a bottle of water (I was going to be there for two hours, I knew I'd be talking a lot, and I didn't know if they'd offer me any), and snack bars (five of them: one for me during the interview, one for each of my interviewers, and one for the ride home because I usually eat a snack and someone else might be hungry).

Originally, I was going to leave at 1:30pm for the 2:45pm start time, but I left at 1pm instead. Why?

Rule #5: Take Your Time

There is never any rush to get to an interview unless you put yourself in that situation. I didn't know how long it was going to take me to drive to the Metro, find a parking space, ride public transportation, and walk to the building. Instead of my original hour to get from Point A to Point B, I gave myself an hour and a half. That way, I didn't feel like I was rushing. That's very important. It's much better to show up for an interview relaxed and calm instead of running to the building because you only have five minutes before you're supposed to be there. Having the extra time also allowed me to put on my tie and suit jacket at the Metro station without rushing. There's a reason why I "geared up" there, but I'll get to that in a minute.

I arrived at my stop, stepped off the train, and took the escalator up to the street level. I marveled at how different the area looked (mainly because two large buildings were gone due to the Metro station expanding). I arrived at 2pm, so I had 45 minutes to kill. Most people would be bothered or upset with this situation, but not me. I took the time to walk around the area to see what was there. Why?

Because if I'm working somewhere I want to know what restaurants and other shops are within walking distance. That's information and it will affect my decision to work somewhere just as much as how long the train ride took for me to arrive at my destination.

I also headed up to the radio station that I used to work. I started working there two days after I graduated from college. I wondered how much the place had changed in 11 years, and (at least for the public facing part of the station) not much had. They even had the same coasters in the "board room" at the front of the station. I left a note for my former boss with one of my business cards (Yet again another reason to carry them with me at all times!), and headed out. Around 2:30pm, I headed for the building where I had my interview. Before I started walking towards the building, I made sure that I looked the way I wanted to present myself.

Rule #6: You Are Always, ALWAYS Being Watched

As soon as I'm in sight of a location where I'm interviewing (and yes, that does include me driving up to the building) I want to put my best professional foot forward. I have read reports that companies will have people watching from the windows to see how I act in the parking lot. (Which is why I put on my suit jacket and tie back at my car.) The company that's interviewing me will possibly talk to every security guard, receptionist, and everyone else that I interact with from the moment I appear to the last moment that I leave. Why? That gives them information about me. Would a company want to hire an experienced person that acts arrogant towards a receptionist? Perhaps, but his attitude can hurt his chances to get hired. They'll notice. Count on it.

As I approached the lobby, I reminded myself to take everything in and always pay attention. I wanted to gather as much information about this place and the company as possible.

Rule #7: Observe Everything

The easiest, and one of the most effective, ways to get information is to keep your eyes open, pay attention, and observe everything you can. I'll provide as much detail as I can about my interview, so there's an understanding about what I mean here. In other words, stay focused and when "nothing is happening", keep paying attention. Remember Rule #6.

I walked through one of the revolving doors (neato!) at the front of the building and entered the main lobby. The color scheme was gray. Dark stone floors and walls gave way to accents of shiny metal and glass. It had a very futuristic feel to it. Behind a large desk were two security guards. I stepped behind a pillar, took off my cold weather gear, and opened my coat. I settled my shoulders, and approached the security desk.

"Hello, Ma'am," I said. "I'm here for an interview at 2:45pm."

The guard said that someone would be down to escort me soon. So, I had about ten minutes to kill. I walked over to one of the low, stone benches that were in front of the large windows at the front of the building and took a seat. Then, I called Allison to let her know I had arrived. The first thing I whispered into my phone when her voicemail beeped was, "Greetings from the Mothership." After I left Allison a message, I turned off my phone and put it in my pocket.

The lobby looked and felt like a set from a 1970s sci-fi TV show. Seriously. It was rather stark and the only reason it had color was because the day was fairly sunny and the light filtered in through the windows. Two large, fake trees were adorned with gold and red ornaments and both trees had boxes of various sizes placed underneath them with the same gold and red color scheme. In a smaller environment, they'd look garish and out of place. But, in the lobby, they were a nice touch of color. After I finished looking at the trees, I took a look around the lobby itself.

The first thing I noticed were the twin security cameras under dark globes of glass. Two security guards and two cameras? Hmmm. Why would they have those? They're a security measure, for sure, but those cameras can also be used to watch people who are waiting in the lobby. Like me. Hello, Rule #6.

As I looked around the lobby, I consciously made the mental decision to relax. I did that partly because I wanted to keep my cool, but also because I took a look at the other people waiting in the lobby. It was pretty obvious who was waiting for an interview. A lot of the other interviewees fidgeted physically, walked around a bit, or were looking at their phones. I, on the other hand, was calmly waiting and paying attention. That means I'm different from everyone else who's there for an interview. Making a point to show that is important to me when I go to an interview.

As I was waiting, I looked at the people entering and leaving the building. Most of them were in dress casual clothing, which is a good thing to note. That's the dress code in this building and some companies won't tell you that up front. The other thing I noticed is that the security guards verified the badges of everyone entering the building and then the employees had to badge through an electronic security point before they could enter the elevators. Security is apparently very important to this company. That's another good to know.

After a few minutes, a younger guy in nondescript clothing with a walkie-talkie on his hip showed up, badged us through to the elevators and took us to the 10th floor. There, we met our contact for the interviews (who was wearing dress casual clothing) and the receptionists gave us all our visitor's badges. I went last to get my badge because a) I was one of the last people out of the elevator, b) that allowed me to look around the room (decorated relatively tastefully), and c) allowed me to observe the receptionists. When it was my turn, I was one of the only people to say "please" when I talked to them. I also talked to the receptionists about my hair. *chuckles* Apparently, one of them has some serious frizz issues. I thanked them both for my badge and we were escorted to a conference room for the company presentation that happened before our three interviews.

The hallways were brightly lit and the walls looked like they were made of wood. There was space for everyone, even though we had a fairly large group, and the design of the place made things seem open and wide. The conference room we went into had a glass door. Some conference rooms we passed had mostly glass walls. That added to the feeling of space in the place and prevented the building from feeling crowded or "closed in". I entered the conference room and, because I was one of the last people in, I ended up near the back of the room. Excellent. I grabbed the center seat at the bottom of the U-shaped table. That allowed me to see everyone else at the table easily. I looked around the room and noticed that one of the walls was painted a nice shade of blue. That's generally done to relax people. Interesting. Another woman came in the room and introduced herself. She offered drinks if anyone wanted them (a lot of places don't do that) and she talked for a bit about the information that would be presented. She set up the Powerpoint presentation and said that the person who was supposed to present the information was running late (apparently the building he was at had a fire drill and they locked down the garage so he couldn't get to his car. Ooops!). She stepped out and we sat there for a little while.

That's when I noticed the security camera. Yes, they had a security camera under one of the same dark globes that they had downstairs. Gee, why would they have that there? Everyone sitting at the table, except for me and three other people, pulled out their phones and started tapping away.

Rule #8: Turn Off Your Friggin' Phone

This situation absolutely boggled my mind and it shows you how much most people consider what happens during interviews. Part of the reason, if not the whole reason, they had us wait was to observe us in the room (Hello, Rule #6!). If you think it wasn't noted that I was one of the only people who didn't immediately pull out a phone, I have a bridge to sell you for a cheap price. It's also entirely possible the guy who showed up late was already in the building before we arrived. I'll never know, but that's important to point out.

The presentation was relatively informative about the company and it provided some information about how the company works, their ideology, and so on. Never ever check out for one of these presentations. Not only are they looking for that behavior, but they also give you a boatload of information. I took a few notes and wrote down some questions. They had a short Q&A session after the presentation. There was a slight pause when the guy asked if there were any questions, so I raised my hand and broke the ice. I did that on purpose because it made me the center of attention and, again, it made me stand out. A couple of other people asked questions, but I think the number of people who asked questions maxed out at five or six. There were roughly 20 people in the room. Work to make them remember you. This situation was a great opportunity to do that. Note how many people acted on it.

After the Q&A session, they passed out our interview assignments and broke us up into smaller groups to get led to our interview rooms. It took a bit for my group to find all of our interview rooms, but I didn't mind because that allowed me to walk around the building to see how it was set up. On the inside of the building are a bunch of offices and conference rooms which are separated by quasi-maze-like hallways. The room numbering is tricky which is why it took a bit for all of the people in my group to find our rooms. All of the conference rooms and offices have at least one glass wall. This becomes important later on, so keep it in mind. The walls, carpet, and floors were fairly colorful and the ambiance was pretty relaxed. On the outside of the building were open workstation areas with low walls. There were no nameplates anywhere and it looked like the employees who were working had set up wherever they wanted to sit. There were large windows along the walls to let a lot of light in which was very nice. We passed a kitchen area which was wide open to the rest of the office except for a small island table in front of it. There was a sink, a coffee machine in a fitted nook (which looked like a Flavia machine. Boooooooo! Their coffee SUCKS!) and a stainless steel fridge which fit into another nook in the wall. Overall, the feeling in the main areas of the office were open and inviting. Good stuff.

I was led to my interview room and I asked where I should sit because there were two sets of chairs. I was told to sit in the chairs facing away from the door (that's important) and that someone would see me soon. So, to recap, I'm sitting in an office with a glass wall which is directly behind me. (Yup, Rule #6 again.)

The office I was given was clean, but it had very obviously been used by people in the past. On the wall on my left, dry erase whiteboards were built into the wall and some old marker was still on one of the boards even though someone tried to erase it. The lighting was indirect (which I thought was interesting), but there were lights underneath the shelving on my right which were set over the desk. The desk curved into the middle of the room, but it didn't crowd the office or make it feel small at all. It was interesting to me that they put me in a room that didn't look 100% neat and tidy. There were some things on the desk (a small placard and some office supplies) and the room obviously wasn't brand new. Some companies will hold interviews in conference rooms or in rooms that are well-kept. I wonder why this company didn't. I'm honestly not sure.

The first guy who came into the room said, "I'm not an interviewer, I'm just dropping off your resume." He introduced himself, offered me a handshake, and wished me luck. This interaction is interesting for two reasons.

1. The guy was relaxed and friendly while being professional at the same time. A lot of places don't encourage that and it was the second time I'd run into people who were relaxed and friendly at this company.
2. This is another opportunity for the company to have someone interact with me. He didn't knock on the door or announce his presence. None of the people who entered the room did, honestly. So, all of them were able to see what I was doing and if I was paying attention when they entered the room.

After he left, I went back to waiting and looking around the room until my first interview started. The guy who blew into the room for my first interview apologized for being late. He was tall, wore a dark suit, was agitated, and a was bit professionally gruff. He also had a handshake the strength of a dead fish. Ugh. He was very brisk and he grilled me about every job that I had for the past seven years except for my current job. He asked very technical questions (which was the point of his interview) and when he was done with his questions, he noted the time and left without offering to let me ask any questions.

When he left, the guy who led my second interview entered the room. He was very warm, friendly, and he was wearing a turban and was dressed professionally, but more casually than the first guy. We had a back-and-forth discussion about consulting, my skills, my experiences, and a lengthy Q&A session. He made it very clear that the people who "worked eight or nine hours and then go home" are treated very differently than "the people who get the job done". He also spoke about how person-centric the company is and was impressed with some of my questions. I really, really liked talking to this guy a lot.

My third interview was with a very petite, professionally dressed woman wearing glasses. This, by the way, was the Partner of the company. (Translation: She's one of the Head Honchos.) I spoke with her about the culture of the company and this interview was to see if I would be a good fit for the company. She was very professional (that was my immediate reaction to her and wrote that down at the top of the page for this interview). She opened herself up enough to talk about the company and to answer my questions, then she would shut down and lock up once she was done speaking. She gave off an impression that she didn't like talking to new people very much. Her speech wasn't halting, but it was a very different experience from the previous interview. Another thing she did was she'd interrupt me from time to time. That definitely kept me on my toes, that's for sure. We talked about career path, what position I saw myself entering the company, and about different aspects of the company. She definitely didn't expect me to ask her to describe what my first few days at the company would be like if I was hired. It was interesting to talk to her about career paths because she asked me which one I wanted and I originally picked the Manager/Partner path until she mentioned the word "aggressive" to describe that career path and talked about "time-specific benchmarks" and "revenue criteria". She was surprised that I changed my mind and I talked to her about getting my feet under me in the company in an arena where I know what I'm doing before I go off and take on new experiences. I remember telling her, "There are times when leaping off of the proverbial cliff with both feet is a good idea and I've done that. But, I get the feeling this isn't one of those times for me. That seems like setting myself up to fail and that's the last thing I want to do."

After the last interview was finished, she escorted me to the lobby where I left the building, put on my cold weather gear and went home.

There were some parts of the interview that annoyed me (like the fact that I kept starting a sentence, pausing, and then finishing it which drives me crazy) and the fact that I took a bit of time to think of questions to ask in the two interviews, but I don't think taking the time to ask questions was a bad thing because the questions I asked were things that they didn't expect (or at least it seemed that way). One important thing to note, that [info]wyera pointed out to me, is the different personalities that I interacted with during the interview. It's entirely possible that the first guy wasn't really late. It's possible the Partner is more comfortable talking to people (she almost is required to be based on her position) and I doubt she interrupts people when they're speaking as often as she did during our interview. Stranger things have happened though. In other words, don't always believe how people act during an interview. How someone deals with different situations and different people provides the company with more information. In other words, that's something else they do on purpose.

Overall, I think the interview went really well. If anyone wants to ask me any questions about my interview, any part of the process I went through, how I prepare, or anything else, let me know.

I Donated $1 For Aquisitions Incorporated

2010-12-13T15:19:00.000-08:00

After watching the latest adventures of Aquisitions Incorporated, and rekindling my interest in roleplaying games, I thought about how I could say thanks to the gaming community at large and give back to the community as a whole at the same time. Here's my idea:

I want to have a large donation made to Child's Play in the name of Aquisitions Incorporated.

Some people may not know what Aquisistions Incorprated or Child's Play are, so here's quick rundown:

Aquisitions Incorporated is the name of the Dungeons and Dragons adventuring group featuring the characters of Wil Wheaton, Scott Kurtz, Mike Krahulik, and Jerry Holkins. (aka Writer/Blogger/Geek/Actor/Sheldon's Nemesis, the creator of PVP, and the creators of Penny Arcade). They've done podcasts of their adventures (and recently recorded a video of their latest gaming session at PAX Prime 2010, see link above) and they've had a blast taking anyone who wants to come along for the ride.

Child's Play is a charity that has done the following:

Since 2003, over 100,000 gamers worldwide have banded together through Child’s Play, a community based charity grown and nurtured from the game culture and industry. Over 7 million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception.

Now that I've established what two out of the three major players are in this shindig, here's where I address the third:

You.

Here's what I'm asking you to do to help me out:

Step 1: Head over to Child's Play and click the PayPal logo in the "You Can Also Donate Directly Via" section.

Step 2: Donate $1 to Child's Play

Step 3: Tweet, blog, or communicate somewhere the following message and a link to this blog post:

"I donated $1 for Aquisitions Incorporated"

What's my goal? Ultimately, it's to provide some fun and good times to sick kids in hospitals. But, what I'd really like to happen is to have word of this get around and someone affiliated with Child's Play state something similar to the following:

"Aquisitions Incorporated has donated [insert amount of money here] to Child's Play."

That would really make my day and surprising Wheaton, Kurtz, Krahulik, and Holkins with that would be icing on the cake.

So, what do you say, Internet? Can you help me out to pull this off?

Let's bring the awesome and bring some light to the lives of kids that really could use it.

Positive Thinking

2010-11-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

One of the oldest, cliched statements that I can remember hearing from adults is "Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it."

It was usually stated as warning when I had spoken out of turn or said something in anger that I didn't really mean. I'm quite sure that most people have heard the phrase before in a similar fashion or situation.

But, I honestly wonder how many people have realized that the same statement works for positive thinking.

Our culture has one purpose, it seems, regarding how we see the world and ourselves: to show everything negative about the world it can while telling us how much we lack and how imperfect we are. It's repeated through the media in all of its forms, through our interactions with people, and how we're raised to always compete with and compare ourselves to other people. We're taught "that's the way things are", to shrug our shoulders, and to accept mediocrity or settle for less than we want. We're taught that the world is created with finite resources (including emotional ones) and that we just have to accept it regardless of our feelings and our dreams.

Is it? Is the world honestly filled with nothing but sorrow, anger, disappointment, fear, depression, and mediocrity? Is it a place where spontaneous situations never occur? Is it a place where there is "no way out", where people can't change themselves or their lives? Where we have to accept what we're told and never challenge the status quo?

No.

We live in our world where the number of possibilities is greater than any other time in history. We live in a world where it's possible to do things that people only 20 or 30 years ago dreamed about doing. It's rather ridiculous to stop and consider how many things I saw in science fiction shows and movies when I was a kid that we have readily available these days. Yet, most people these days don't believe that they can do similar amazing things for themselves.

Why?

I used to think that way and, honestly, sometimes I still do. It's a habit that takes time and effort to break, but it is possible. The main reason that I've found, from my own personal experience and from talking to other people, that people prevent themselves from doing what they want to do or being who they want to be is because they don't allow themselves to have that opportunity. Most thoughts that begin with "Hey wouldn't it be neat if..." are met with a response similar to "But, that's impossible", "I can't do that...", "It would never work...", or "Yeah, right."

Which means that those things will never happen or even have a chance of showing up in our lives. Because we haven't permitted ourselves to have the chance to attempt it.

Everything starts with a person who has an idea or a belief. There's no other way for something man-made to be created or for a man-made change to occur in our world. Each of those ideas or beliefs hinges on one very important thing: a decision. Every single time we do anything, we make a decision. Some decisions are less important than others, but even the smallest decision can cause a ripple effect in our day or for our entire lives. For example, if I run into a traffic jam on my way to work in the morning and I decide to get grumpy about it, there's a higher chance that I'll have a "bad day" because I decided that my morning commute would upset me. That, in turn, might lead me to react poorly to accidentally spilling coffee when I pick it up from the coffee machine or get angry when someone accidentally bumps into me later in the day. Those small decisions have a cascading effect emotionally and mentally on everyone. So, if I accept the traffic jam as something I can't control and brush it off while listening to my favorite radio station, not only is there less of a chance that I'll get upset about spilling the coffee or running into the other person, but it's also possible that I won't spill the coffee or run into the person at all because I might not be rushing to get my coffee or hurrying to get somewhere because I'm more relaxed and I'm less agitated.

Back when I first heard about "the power of positive thinking" and how I could "shape my life the way I wanted it", I was fairly skeptical. It sounded a bit like a con job where people were looking to make some easy money on a bunch of suckers. Most people these days know about the book and the movie called The Secret and for awhile it was a hot topic and pretty trendy. That's generally a turn off for me, so I wasn't interested. I stumbled into the "your thoughts affect your life" movement by watching a documentary called What The [BLEEP] Do We Know?. What surprised me about the film is that it's focus isn't on spirituality. It's focus is on quantum physics and how we affect our own realities. Most interesting to me, was the statement that we can affect our lives in small ways as well as big ones. To prove that, the movie suggests that the viewer decides on something small and tangible that they want to have. Something that's easy to see and verify. Such as having an open parking spot waiting when they arrived somewhere.

The idea of having an open parking spot whenever I needed one sounded great to me at the time I saw the movie. I was living with a friend of mine because my house was infested with bedbugs and her townhouse court had a limited number of parking spaces that were available and cars would line the small section of street when the spaces filled up.

What the hell, I thought. I might as well give it a shot.

Much to my surprise, from then on I always had a place to park at my friend's townhouse. The time of day didn't matter. The day of the week didn't matter. Whenever I showed up to the house, I had a place to park my car.

After experiencing this phenomenon, I did some more research. Partially because I was curious and partially because my brain kept telling me that there was no way that it was that easy to change or affect my life. What I've found is that there's a simple process that causes these sort of things to happen:

Step 1: Decide there's something you want.
Step 2: State in some manner "Here's what I want".
Step 3: Believe that you can get it.
Step 4: Put effort towards obtaining it.

So, going back to my parking spot example, here's how that worked:

Step 1: "It would be really awesome if I had a parking spot available when I arrived at my friend's house."
Step 2: I stated out loud "I want 'Rock Star parking' when I go places." (i.e. I want a spot available when I show up.)
Step 3: I expected to see an empty spot when I arrived.
Step 4: Some days, I'd talk about seeing it when I arrived. Other days, I visualized an open spot in the townhouse court. It varied from day to day.

That's how it works for anything. The reason that people get jobs that they want is they decide that's what they want and they work towards it while believing they'll get there. They do the work necessary to lay the foundations for reaching their goals and they believe they'll get there during the entire process.

In other words they were "careful what they wished for". It is, at times, very easy to derail ourselves from reaching our goals by our own negative thinking. It took me a long time to realize that I was the main person holding myself back and putting myself down, but after I realized what I told everyone else ("I'm my own worst critic") was true and that behavior was detrimental to me being who I wanted to be and doing what I wanted to do it was not only a shock that I'd treat myself that way, but that I had been doing it for years without knowing what I was doing to myself.

I had bought into the hype our culture loves to sell because it makes money. Negative, negative, negative. "Not good enough", "can't do it", yadda yadda yadda. The question that challenges that sort of thinking and ideology is very simple, very obvious, and very small. Which is, perhaps, why people in general don't ask it:

Why?

Why can't I do something? Why am I "not good enough"? Why am I thinking this way? Why am I not angry about this? Why am I letting myself be treated this way?

Generally, what people are answered with when they take this step is fear in some form. "Oh, gosh. I couldn't..." is a very common answer. Usually, but not always, the fear is rooted in the fact that failure in our society is condemned and shunned. When young children are walking around with clothing that reads "Second place is the first loser", it's a bit obvious that our culture has a poor opinion on failure.

But, in reality, failure is nothing more than a tool for learning. It's the point where we realize we made a mistake, so we have to do something differently. More importantly, we can learn what we did wrong and try again or go in a new direction to keep moving towards our goals. There's a phrase I read a couple of years ago that bears this idea out:

The world is run by C students. -- Anonymous

In order to really achieve great things, people have to stumble around, fall, and fail to learn what they have to fix to do things correctly. That's true for any profession, from writers to businessmen to doctors to scientists. The key to failure is that we have to allow ourselves to fail and realize that failure is not an "end state". It's part of the process of getting where we want to go. Getting there is not a straight line from Point A to Point B. It's a meandering line that goes all over the place: up hills, around bends, back across where we've gone before, and even off of a cliff or two. But, by doing that we not only get where we wanted to go, we also discover new things that we didn't know about before. Silly Putty and the Microwave are two examples that immediately come to mind. Those discoveries would have never happened if the people that discovered them accepted failure as the end of their search. While they didn't get exactly "what they wished for", they found something more interesting. Which, to me, is quite a positive result.

Quote of the Day

2010-10-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

"I may be busy. I may be tired. But, I've learned that if I don't spend my short time here enjoying all the people around my existence what's the point of sitting in front of that monitor at 11pm learning about literary canons and contra-accounts. None. There's no reason to work yourself silly for money unless you know the real value are those you spend the money with." -- Drizz

Learn Free

2010-10-01T14:24:00.001-07:00

Learn Free from Lillian Mauser-Carter on Vimeo.

Learn Free is a short documentary, directed by Lillian Mauser-Carter, on the "unschooling" version of homeschooling. It's pretty spiffy, so if you're interested, check it out.

Check Your Sources

2010-09-22T06:37:00.000-07:00

I received the article below from my Dad via email. It's very good satire, but there's something about it that I want to point out because, to me, it's very important.

At the top of the article, there is a byline. It looks fairly professional, so most people won't question it and they'll happily quote it as a source because "it looks right". The name of the newspaper this article supposedly comes from is the "Manitoba Herald" and the supposed author of the article is "Clive Runnels". Using Google, I searched for Manitoba Herald and Clive Runnels in seperate searches.

I came up empty for a viable, original source for this article. Check the links above for the proof. The "Manitoba Herald" search linked to a number of blog posts that obviously copy/pasted the "article" and credited the Manitoba Herald and Clive Runnels as the source of the content. The "Clive Runnels" search asks if I want to search for a different spelling of the last name ("Runnells") and only cites the article below once, but, again, that's for a reprint in a blog and there's no link to a source article.

The lesson here is to always, ALWAYS check the source of any article that looks official or professional when you're either receiving something via email or reading it when someone reposts it on a blog.

I wish I could credit this piece of writing properly because it's, in my opinion, very well done. But, since the byline is bogus for the article, I unfortunately can't do that.

Here's the article:

Immigration Overload

The Manitoba Herald
as reported by Clive Runnels, September 18th, 2010

The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The recent actions of the Tea Party are prompting an exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray, and to agree with Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck.

Canadian border farmers say it's not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal-rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night.

"I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn," said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota.

“The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn't have any, he left before I even got a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?"

In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. He then installed loudspeakers that blared Rush Limbaugh across the fields.

"Not real effective," he said. "The liberals still got through and Rush annoyed the cows so much that they wouldn't give any milk."

Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons, and drive them across the border where they are simply left to fend for themselves.

"A lot of these people are not prepared for our rugged conditions," an Ontario border patrolman said. "I found one carload without a single bottle of imported drinking water. They did have a nice little Napa Valley cabernet, though."

When liberals are caught, they're sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about plans being made to build re-education camps where liberals will be forced to drink domestic beer and watch NASCAR races.

In recent days, liberals have turned to ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have been disguised as senior citizens taking a bus trip to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half- dozen young vegans in powdered wig disguises, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizens about Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney to prove that they were alive in the '50s.

"If they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we become very suspicious about their age," an official said.

Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and are renting all the Michael Moore movies. "I really feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can't support them," an Ottawa resident said. "How many art-history majors does one country need?"

In an effort to ease tensions between the United States and Canada, Vice President Biden met with the Canadian ambassador and pledged that the administration would take steps to reassure liberals. A source close to President Obama said, "We're going to have some Paul McCartney and Peter, Paul & Mary concerts. And we might even put some endangered species on postage stamps. The President is determined to reach out," he said.

Well Said, Sir.

2010-09-03T05:42:00.000-07:00

I don't agree with everything he says, but his main point is spot on. The only mistake he really makes is that people can't "build anything anytime they want" because of zoning laws. But, if that was the actual discussion instead of "OMGISLAMISEVIL", then this video wouldn't have been made in the first place.

A Country United, Not Divided

2010-08-19T07:00:00.001-07:00

Earlier today, my mother sent me a link to a video and said that the guy who made it had some "good points". I took a look at the video, wrote the response below, and sent it to everyone who received the e-mail. Based on what I wrote, I'm guessing anyone who reads this can understand the gist of the video's message.

Mom,

Forgive me if this email seems blunt, but the video you sent doesn't have one "good point" in it. The man who created the video uses ancient history, emotional hotpoints, and generalities to spread a message of division, distrust, and seperation.

First of all, a "13 story mosque" isn't being built at all. Here's a link for your review:

http://politics.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2010/08/16/the-ground-zero-mosque-is-not-a-mosque-or-at-ground-zero

The building that's being built is akin to a Jewish culture center, a Salvation Army building, or an older version of a YMCA.

On top of that, discussing what "Muslims did when they went into Mecca" is like talking about what Christians did during the Middle Ages. Religions of all types have destroyed the temples or worship areas of places they've conquered for generations. However, the Islam of that time is not the same Islam of today just as the Christianity of that time is not the same Christianity of today.

Another thing the creator of the video does is he quotes from the Qu'aran. Taking key passages out of a religious tome and quoting one well-known public religious figure that validates the speaker's point is a tactic I've seen used by anti-Christian speakers to ridicule, degrade, and demean Christianity. It is a gutless, self-serving act that seeks to divide and advance a preferred cause. There is no other reason to grab a specific one or two sentence religious quote in this manner. When that is done, it's generally taken out of context which allows the speaker to twist the passage's meaning to his own ends.

The 9/11 attacks were a very emotional, violent, and horrific occurence. All I see it being used for is an emotional tool to further the political and cultural aims of various groups. What it should be doing is drawing people together as Americans, but they'd rather spread division, spite, and ensure that Americans don't trust each other.

The Muslims that performed that attack are a part of a radical sect of the religion. Stating that "Muslims", without any other qualifying remarks, committed the attacks is a deliberate act to blame an entire religion for the actions of just a number of its followers. I do not believe that "Christians approve of bombing abortion clinics" either. So, why should I believe his statement about "Muslims" and not question it?

The three main weapons that terrorists use are fear, division, and distrust. This video uses ALL THREE of these things and encourages them. In other words, this guy is helping the terrorists get what they want! Muslims will take this video and others like it and they will show it to other Muslims. Then, they can say, "You see? THIS is what Americans believe! They hate us!" Is that what we really want?

The 9/11 attackers didn't attack New York City because it was a "religious center" or anything of the sort. The creator of the video even states NYC is an "economic center". Which means that we were attacked because of our cultural beliefs and not because of religious ones. That means that Americans should work together to fight this fight instead of shoving Mulsims into one evil group of people.

Does this mean that I approve of the images he showed or that I'm ignoring the situation? No, it does not. However, that does not mean that I approve of divisive materials that only seek to seperate Americans from each other by sowing seeds of distrust. The anti-Muslim movement has seized on this emotional issue so greatly, there are already groups publicly calling for a complete ban on mosques in the entire country:

http://www.google.com/search?q=group+wants+to+ban+mosques+in+the+US&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

I categorically refuse to encourage or take part in any movement that seeks such ends. I do not mind, and encourage, people to question the motives of groups and to discover why things are being done. But, I cannot abide knee-jerk emotional reactions supported by emotional prompting and vague language. Especially those that lambast and demean an entire group of people with such a broad brush.

Thanks,

Drew

Thanks for the Ride, Old Friend

2010-08-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

I honestly don't want to write this blog post. Normally, a first sentence like that one would lead to me writing about a pet or a family member that passed away or some other emotional occurrence that would warrant spending the time an energy writing about. However, I won't be writing about anything of the sort.

I'm writing about buying a new car.

Perhaps that's not entirely accurate. While I did buy a new car, and it looks pretty snazzy, I'm actually going to write about the most reliable car I've ever owned.

Back in 1999, my wife (who was my girlfriend at the time) bought the car you see above this paragraph because her Chrysler Le Baron decided to start to fall apart on her drive back to Delaware from my college graduation. Most people didn't put much faith in Ford Escorts (and if you asked those people about them now, they probably wouldn't have changed their minds), but it was affordable, available, and she liked it. After driving the car out of the dealership, my wife (and later I) would drive it for 11 years and 128,000 miles with it only breaking down twice.

This is the car that brought my wife from Delaware to Virginia before we were married. This is the car that carried her safely to her work until she decided to become a stay-at-home mother. It's the car that transported us on our honeymoon and on various other trips that we took together. It's the car I drove to Pennsylvania for Big Mike's XL party, and for Bash at the Boathouse VII. It's been my main mode of transportation for the past five years, including the six-and-a-half hour (at minimum) round trip drives every weekend for over a year to visit my family while we were living in different places.

It's a rock, a puzzle piece, something that's so obviously there that when it gets carted off, most likely this week, my world won't be quite right for awhile. It's very odd, honestly, to stop and realize some of the things that make my life "normal". The patterns that are established, based on the things that are constantly present and the order of events that occur at the same time in the same place, on an "average" day aren't things I consider on a regular basis.

But, it's just a car! I can hear people think. Well, of course. But, it's what the car represents that matters. By giving up this car, I recognize that I'm getting older, that things in my life are changing, that entropy occurs, and also that I have to give up something that's an integral part of 11 years of memories which will soon be irrevocably absent from my life.

I'm not grieving, per se, but there is a sense of loss I'm dealing with in this situation. My logical mind knows that the new car we just bought will provide new memories for me to savor once it's time to get another car. (My wife and I both realized the other day that my kids are going to be 13 and 16 when we replace this new car if everything goes right. These are the sort of thoughts that parents give themselves when they're not freaking out about how their kids are acting in the present. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps it's a hobby.) Yet, my emotional mind isn't ready to consider the future quite yet. Perhaps I'm mentally savoring everything I've done that's involved the car. Or perhaps I've simply grown attached to something that I've used a lot and done my best to take care of over the years. Whichever it is, it's time to start a new chapter in my life.

Here's to hoping it's as good as the last one.

A Reminder for U.S. Citizens

2010-07-04T21:05:00.001-07:00

The Benefit of Mistakes

2010-07-04T19:32:00.001-07:00

As a parent, I always do my best to measure when my kids might be in a dangerous situation and whether they're safe enough to do something on their own. It's a delicate balance because I want to give my children autonomy, but I like to be around just in case something happens. There are also times in our lives when one mistake prevents an even larger problem from occuring.

This is one of those situations.

A few days ago, when my family was at the pool, my son tried to grab his beach ball out of the kiddie pool while standing on the side of the pool. He overbalanced and fell into the water. He was fine because the water was shallow and he was wearing his arm floats. So, all that happened is he got wet and was scared.

Earlier today, we went to my friends' house for a barbecue. They opened their pool and Allison, Shannon, and I spent time swimming and playing around while Ian played with balls, ran around the yard, and spent time hanging out with different people. We had forgotten to pack the ketchup that our kids can use, so Allison left to go home to grab it. That meant I was watching both kids by myself. Shannon asked if I would get in the pool and swim with her, but I told her:

Your mother isn't here, so I have to stay out of the pool so I can watch your brother.

About ten minutes after I said that, Ian spotted a ball that he wanted. It was sitting in the water in the deep end of the pool. I immediately thought of his accident at the kiddie pool from a few days ago, so I told him to walk over there and I would get the ball for him.

As I came around the diving board, looking at it so I didn't trip, I heard a splash. I looked into the pool and all I saw were my son's sneakers.

I said, "SHIT!" and dove.

Everything that happened in the next minute was all instinct. I got under my son, and tried to shove him out of the water. My grip slipped on his clothes, so he didn't get out the first time I tried.

I grabbed a hold of him and bodily hauled him above the water. I remember asking him if he was okay and noticing that he only coughed once or twice (a miracle since he was under water for at least 20-30 seconds, but I think when I grabbed him I caught his stomach so any air that was in his system wooshed out and took any water with it), and getting him out of the pool. He was very upset that he was wet (he had issues with being in a bathtub before ending up in two pools unintentionally in a four day period, so who knows when he'll get over that issue), and he was very scared. So, I picked him up and got him some dry clothes. My friend Tracey gave him lots of hugs and love because "he looked like he needed it" and she was right.

Allison didn't get to find out about all of this until she came back because I only thought to call her phone and not mine (which was in the car she was driving). I'll take a mulligan because my brain was still running on adrenaline and was in shock when I tried to call her.

What bothers me the most about this incident is why it occurred. My son was pushed by another three year old boy. Now, this may or may not be standard three year old behavior, but in this instance it wasn't.

You see, there was a real gem of a male role model (after watching his behavior, I refuse to call him a "father") who thought that putting a flotation device on his three year old son and randomly pushing him into the pool without warning would help him learn how to swim.

Let that sink in for a second.

That was pretty average behavior for this idiotic waste of flesh.

So, since he had been shoved into the pool without warning, this little boy figured that it was okay for him to do that to other people. Which is how my son almost ended up as a statistic or needing emergency medical attention.

What really galls me is that people tried to tell me the kid has behavior problems. Well, GEE. I wonder where on God's green Earth how he would end up with that sort of thing?

After Allison arrived and some time had passed, I had to go spend some time by myself. I was done with being around people (especially when the mother of the little boy's mother tried to have me be her sympathetic ear to unburden herself about her true feelings about her grandson's sperm donor) and I was starting to seethe.

When I was walking my wet, scared son towards the house, I told this genius, "You can stop shoving your son into the pool because he just shoved my son into the deep end of the pool."

I repeatedly told people who were apologizing to me and talking to me about the boy and his issues that I "don't blame him at all", "he's three years old", and other similar things. I will continue to say that and I will say that until the day that I die. That little boy was simply mirroring behavior that he experienced because he was led to believe that it was allowed and appropriate. Three year old children can't distinguish between people who have flotation devices and people who don't. They're in a "monkey see, monkey do" headspace and I've experienced that first hand when my son started sticking his hands in his pockets to kick a soccer ball with me because that's what I had done without thinking about it.

I'm trying to figure out how to describe how I feel about this whole situation and the best words I can come up with are "emotionally overwhelmed". I'm glad I don't have to make a video or anything in order to post this journal entry because there'd be a lot of silence and me grasping for words.

It sounds very cliche to me to end this with a statement like "always watch your kids around a pool", but it's the very best advice I can give. No other adult near the pool knew something wasn't right until I hit the water. They didn't know what the real problem was until I hauled my son to the surface. I don't say these words with the intention of encouraging anyone to walk three feet behind their kid wherever they go around a pool. When I was walking up to get the ball for my son, I walked on the opposite side of the pool from him and kept my eye on him. Kids still need the space, in my opinion, to be kids instead of having parents hovering around them all the time. My son had walked around the pool numerous times by himself earlier in the day. What set off my parental radar was his desire to obtain the ball and the similarities of the situation to the previous fall he had in the kiddie pool.

When my son gets comfortable walking around a pool again (and when that will happen is anyone's guess), I'll admit that I'm going to be a bit twitchy. That honestly can't be helped. But, I will do my best to let him have his space while I continue to keep a keen eye on him.

The United States and Soccer

2010-06-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

"I've been in two World Cups where we had a great game and then let down the next game, said Donovan. "I won't let that happen, and I'll make sure the team doesn't let that happen." -- Landon Donovan, in the 6/21/2010 edition of Sports Illustrated

In order to make a run at any championship in sports, a few things are needed. A quality team, an attitude to never quit, and proof that the team and the attitude can win games.

In the 91st minute of the USA vs Algeria World Cup match, the United States brought all three of those things together. But, there are two other very important things that occurred when Landon Donovan sent his team into the next round of the World Cup.

The first thing that occurred is that the United States was given its first World Cup Moment. A "where were you when" event that people will reminisce about for years to come which people immortalize with video.

The second thing that occurred is that the U.S. gave themselves a story. They eradicated the demons from the previous World Cup and showed that they're a force on the biggest stage in the sport. If the disallowed goals were counted, then the United States would have finished the group stage of the 2010 World Cup with seven points. The only two teams at the writing of this blog that have more points are Argentina and the Netherlands. The only other two teams who have a shot at reaching that number of points are Brazil and Portugal. This is America's World Cup coming out party where the team has proven that they not only deserve to participate in the tournament, but that they can succeed there.

This World Cup is the perfect storm for soccer in the United States. MLS already had higher average attendance numbers than the NBA and NHL before the World Cup began. Tons of people are not only interested in the team, but they're getting up early in the morning to watch the games. Conversations about the World Cup are happening all over the place wherever I go. It's amazing to watch and placing first in Group C united a lot of people and cemented a following for U.S. soccer in the future.

Consider how many kids 12 and under are watching this World Cup. Try to imagine how much this affects them and the sports they're going to view for the rest of their lives. Sure, some of them may only watch the World Cup every four years. But, even that itself is impressive given that the U.S. first really made waves in the tournament back in 1994. Especially with the poor results the team had in the previous two World Cups.

It'll be very interesting to see how all of this ends up. Do I believe that the U.S. will win it all? No, I don't think so. But, no one expected them to beat Spain 3-0 either.

So, I guess we'll all have to watch and see how this story ends. It's going to quite a ride.

A Fistful of Loonies

2010-06-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

Going on vacation is a pretty standard thing for people to do. Most people, generally, take a trip every year or every other year off to some far away place, or not so far away place, and get away from their familiar surroundings. My wife and I hadn't taken a vacation since 2002, so when we decided that we were taking a trip to Canada, it was a big deal.

This trip was interesting because it was the first time we had packed up our family of four and taken an extended trip away from home. Going to a foreign country made it that much more challenging. (Every parent that's reading this post who has had to get a passport for their child is nodding their head in agreement right now.)

The cherry on the "this is going to be an interesting trip" sundae was the fact that we decided to drive. It would allow us to set up a flexible schedule, give us a lot more freedom, and spare anyone else traveling with our family in an airplane for a few hours any sort of negative reaction my kids could have to flying. We checked everything twice, packed it carefully, and went on the trip.

Always travel with your wingman

We took our time getting to Canada by stopping in New Jersey and upstate New York to see friends and family. We paid for it, literally, because of all of the tolls we had to pay along the route. Ay carumba! Eventually, we crossed the border and arrived in Canada.

The biggest letdown of the trip is that we were unable to spend time with Katitude. Apparently, this was the wrong trip to try to see her, so we'll have to arrange to get together the next time we head up North. It was a real downer and it's not something I'd like to experience again if possible.

Otherwise, this trip was one of the best I've ever taken. We decided against being tourists and instead focused on spending time with our friends and meeting new people. That was the smartest decision we made and it definitely made the trip absolutely wonderful.

Generally, when meeting people for the first time, especially in groups, there's a "breaking in" period where everyone gets to know everyone else and things are a bit awkward and/or uneasy until everyone gets comfortable.

That never happened on our trip.

It's amazing to meet people who welcome you with open arms like you're returning home from a journey instead of entering their lives for the first time. It's a wonderful gift that I've been given in my lifetime and every time it happens it's awesome. We were invited to birthday parties, asked to dinner at people's houses, and had help offered whenever we needed it. It was incredible and I'm honored to know each and every person we met. Meeting people on a level where it's already assumed that you're a good person and friendly is a wonderfully refreshing experience and I hope it happens to me again in the future.

At this point, I'm quite sure there are some people who are asking various questions such as What did they see on the trip? or Where did they go? But, honestly, I just described that. We went on the trip to see our friends and meet their friends. So, that's what we did. We attended barbecues, went to a pool party, took our kids to a park, chatted through all hours of the day and night, and spent time with people.

That's the point of any gathering, really. It's meeting in one place to spend time together in person. It's not going to see a specific place or meeting at a certain time. It's all about being around the people who go to the gathering. Everything else is details.

A Possible Solution to BP's Oil Spill

2010-05-17T09:36:00.000-07:00

I've heard about this solution before, but I've never seen it in action. A simple, yet very effective way to clean oil out of water is use hay to absorb it.

I wish the suits at BP would hear about this idea, if they don't know about it already, and at least consider to use it. It would probably save them a lot of money and preserve the environment in the long run.

It's Business

2010-04-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

Whenever anyone deals with a poker site, it's business. Whether they play cash games, MTTs, set up a private tournament, or when the site offers them a spot to participate in a tournament. There's always a trade of goods of some kind. Most of the time, cash is traded for a chance to play, but other times, it's prizes for advertising or something similar.

I bring this up because I've recently heard people saying that they can't state their honest opinions about an event because they either "don't want to screw up what's been given" or they "have done well so they have to support it".

Hogwash.

If people don't complain about things, companies never discover that they aren't providing their customers with what they want. What that scenario ususally causes is the company's customers finding somewhere else to spend their money. Which is obviously not what the company wants.

Also, by reading this blog post, understand that you're the reason why bloggers get advertising money, are asked to do reviews, and get other perks. Blogs are a way to reach an audience, just like radio or television. But, the kicker with blogs is the audience is much more focused (e.g. players read poker blogs), so companies who want to reach that audience spend money or offer prizes in exchange for that ability.

Full Tilt is providing the BBT5 because it wants six weeks (or more) of constant "face time" in the blogosphere. Honestly, they don't care if the posts are positive or negative. We're still bringing them up. That's what matters.

I wrote a post a little while ago about why I didn't like the BBT5, but then I took it down. I didn't take it down because I changed my mind about the tournament. I took it down because I over-reacted emotionally in the post. I still don't like the BBT5 format and I still don't like the odds non-invitees are given (13 seats available versus 25). Honestly, the only people who are able to get a shot at all 25 available TOC seats are the people who played in the first Sunday Invitational. It's not a level playing field and I think that sucks.

Is it awesome that Full Tilt is running another edition of the BBT? Of course it is. It's very cool that our community is getting recognized in this manner. But, make no mistake about why Full Tilt is running the tournament. It's offering the BBT5 prizes in exchange for a large number of blogs writing about it for six weeks straight. We're branding their site and we're linking people directly to their blog. It's a business exchange, plain and simple.

So, if you write a blog, you're playing in the BBT5, and there's something you don't like about it, then write about it if it bothers you enough to do so. There won't be any repercussions from Full Tilt and if anyone has an issue with what you've wrote you they can leave a comment or contact you in another manner. If they don't do that, even if they say they will, that's not your problem. But, please don't keep quiet out of fear. Full Tilt might not get information that they want to know and you're staying silent for no valid reason.

Foot In Mouth Disease

2010-04-17T11:27:00.001-07:00

Apparently, I have a large case of it these days. Next time, I'll wait until I have all the information and/or I'll talk to people before spouting off about something. The offending post has been removed without any input from anyone else. I got ridiculously melodramatic and shouldn't have been anywhere near a keyboard when I wrote it. Sorry if I upset anyone.

Rebuilding

2010-04-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

There are many different reactions that a person can have when they lose at poker on a regular basis. Some people go into denial and blame exterior things like the dealer or the cards. Some people state that "everything's fine" and they keep playing like they always have been playing. Others lament to other people that they have "bad luck" or "that's how it is for me".

Personally, when that happens I head back to square one and start looking for things to fix.

I'm a lot more competitive than most people that know me realize. It's not something that I carry on my shoulder and the only time it really makes itself obvious is when I'm playing videogames with my friends and we start talking trash. But, if people pay attention, they'll notice it. A great example is that my wife won't hang out with me if I ever bowl in a league again. The last time she came along to hang out with me, I didn't talk to her for most of the time because I was too focused on the game.

A lot of the sports, if not all of them, that I participate in are "individual sports", meaning that either there's only one player on a "team" or, in the case of baseball, the actions of an individual affects the game the most. In these sports (bowling, golf, and darts (if you want to call darts a sport, that is)), there are two main things that are the fundamentals to build on: form and accuracy with the former being the most important.

In order to perform well in golf, for example, it's imperative to hit the ball well. In order to do that, a golfer has to have the proper form to hit the ball relatively straight. The same goes for a bowler looking for a strike or a dart thrower looking for a bulls-eye. Everything else is extraneous, yet people who play these sports generally get caught up in other things.

Golf is a great example. Based on marketing, gear that's sold, and people's attitudes I could assume, if I didn't know much about the sport, that the most important factor in golf is distance. Hitting the ball a long way is what every new golf ball and club says it will do. That's partially because that's the only thing that gear can help a golfer do, most of the time anyway, but it's also because people love the "long ball".

Personally, I couldn't care less how far I hit the ball when I golf as long as I'm hitting it square and generally where I want it to go. It's not going to bother me that I'll hit a drive that's "only" 190 yards sometimes at this point. If it's on the fairway, and if it's close to where I was aiming even better, that's what's important.

Beyond that, simply trying to power through things in order to get results gives a player a limited tool kit to use when they're playing. Walk into any bowling alley and you'll see well-muscled guys picking up 16 pound bowling balls and throwing them as hard as they can at the pins to get strikes. But, if they leave a pin, or two or three, they have a devil of a time converting a spare because they don't have the accuracy or knowledge to pick up those pins.

While poker is a mental "sport", the same logic applies to it as it does to the other games I've mentioned. Knowing the fundamentals and having a large skill set is important to long term poker success. It's impossible to play well if, for example, the only thing a player tries to do is run over the table all the time.

So, if you're struggling at the moment to win, or even if you're simply curious, take the time to examine things for leaks or to revisit the basics of poker. If nothing else, it's a good idea to refresh that information every once in awhile.

Offensively Challenged?!?

2010-04-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

"Don't kill me if you see me at Fenway. Just calling it the races the way I see them. I don't think the Red Sox have enough offense, and the bullpen may be weaker than the fans think. I still think it's absurd that Sox fans got sold a bill of goods on what a bad defensive player Jason Bay was last year. The team will miss that horrible glove this year, I can tell you that. David Ortiz-Adrian Beltre-J.D. Drew 5-6-7? I've got my doubts." -- Peter King

Hey, Peter? Allow me to introduce you to an article written by Jason Stark back on March 26th:

Baseball Prospectus' fabled PECOTA system projects that the Red Sox will score 846 runs this season. Is that fewer runs than they scored last year? OK, so it is. Precisely 26 fewer. A run a week.

But now let's shine a little clarity on those numbers. You know how many teams in baseball scored 846 runs last year, not counting the Red Sox themselves? Precisely two -- the Yankees (915) and Angels (883).

So go tell the Royals and Padres how offensively "challenged" the Red Sox are. Almost every team in baseball would love to be this challenged.

"To me, this is coming from people who are a little short-sighted," said hitting coach Dave Magadan. "They see we lose a Jason Bay, and we don't replace him with another guy who's going to hit 35 homers and drive in 120, so they say, 'What are we going to do?' But they lose sight of the fact that … we have nine guys in our every-day lineup who are capable of hitting 15-plus home runs. And not many teams can say that."

PROJECTING THE 2010 RED SOX
STAT 2009 *2010 CHANGE
Runs 872 846 minus-26
BA .270 .277 plus-7
OBP .352 .357 plus-5
SLG .454 .449 minus-5
HR 212 179 minus-33

* -- Baseball Prospectus PECOTA projection

There's nothing wrong with the Red Sox. They just got better on pitching and defense while giving up a little offense.

As it was stated over at the Joy of Sox after the Opening Day win:

Damn shame we can't hit/score.

The Pain of Happiness

2010-04-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

A lot of people have asked me what it's like to be a parent even when they don't ask me that exact question. Statements like "That's a big decision" or something similar either note that the person is a parent and they understand or that they aren't and they're wondering what it's like. I finally have a photograph with a story that explains it perfectly.

This is my reward for spending four hours at a playground with no shade. The hand I'm holding in front of my body had a wrist brace on it, which is why it's the natural shade of my skin instead of lobster red like the rest of my upper body that wasn't covered. So, not only am I dealing with a wicked sunburn, but I'm going to have a goofy tan for the rest of this summer.

What's interesting is that I don't care.

A lot of people who have seen this photo have notice that I'm "happy" or "don't mind" in the photo and they're right. That's because if I have to deal with some discomfort to watch my kids run around for a couple of hours on a warm Spring day, then I'll happily pay the price.

That's how parenting works. In order for me to get the hugs, the spontaneous "I love you, Daddy" comments, the laughter, the joy, and all the other stuff I love from my kids being here I have to deal with arguments, watching them get hurt, watching them learn the hard lessons that life teaches, and trying my best to allow them independence while holding them back enough so that they're safe. There's other sacrifices, to be sure, but the emotional bits are the hardest to deal with. I'd rather deal with a sunburn than watch my kids cry. That's a ludicrous statement to make, but every parent that's reading this is probably nodding their head in agreement right now. It's not just an instinct. It's an innate thing that can't be adequately described with words.

Which is why that picture is at the top of this post. That's it. Right there. That's what it's like to be a parent.

And I won't trade it for anything.

Steampunk Shakespeare

2010-03-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

If you live in or around Philadelphia, I suggest you haul ass if you want tickets for this show. I imagine they'll go rather quickly.

More pictures here, taken by the always awesome Kyle Cassidy who's the froody dude that passed along this info.

Making A Negative A Positive

2010-03-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

One Step At A Time

2010-03-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

Three events of note that have happened today:

1. I watched my kids and my wife make chocolate chip cookies in my house.

2. I sat out on my back porch in the sunshine and read a book.

3. The pest control guy showed up today to treat the outside of our house. When he introduced himself and informed me that he was going to be on my property, he asked, "Is everything okay inside?"

I said, "Everything's fine."

I busted my ass for over a year to get these things back in my life.

Now, I have them and it feels wonderful!

There's no reason, in my opinion, that other people can't do similar things in their own lives. I've even had people scoff at me when I've stated that fact before. Some of those people are now, much to their surprise, either getting exactly what they were looking for or have the possibility of obtaining it.

The way that's done is listed below. The list isn't concrete or even close to complete, especially since I'm doing this off the top of my head, but it's a good place to start. If people want to question me about it, comment about it, or simply call me crazy for thinking this way they can feel free to do so. My proof is my own life and what I've manifested in it.

Here's the list:

1. Decide what you want

Set a goal. It can be something small or it can be something absolutely outlandish (e.g. "I'm going to make five million dollars in the next five years!"). It doesn't matter what it is, except that it be something that you truly want. The example that's the most glaring from the past year or so for me is that I wanted a bug free house. (Quick summary: Last year, my family discovered a massive bedbug infestation in our house. It took 11 months for everything to resolve itself and I had to live from my family the whole time. In other words, it completely sucked.)

It took time and effort, but I've made it.

2. Focus only on things that you can affect

Anger is an important emotion. It tells us when things are wrong, for example, but it can be very distracting. When things go wrong, we tend to pour a ton of energy into being upset, complaining, and so forth. Those emotions and behaviors are valid, but only as long as they don't distract us from actually fixing the problem. The more energy and time that are thrown into being upset and complaining, the less energy and time there is to use towards getting ourselves into better places and/or reaching what we decided we wanted in Step 1.

The main focus of our anger, and other emotions, is usually things that have occurred in the past. While it's understandable to focus time and energy on those things, especially for traumatic experiences and other such things, it is important to prevent ourselves from becoming so consumed by past occurrences that it causes us to stop putting time and effort towards things in the present. In other words, things in the past have already happened and there's no way to change them. Instead of dwelling on what has happened, focus on what we can do now to change things and get them the way we want them to be.

I couldn't change that my house was infested, but what I could do was support my family, work on getting the house bug free, and continue to work at my job. So, that's what I did.

3. Tolerate how things are now

The more crude version of this step can be stated as "flow like water" or "let things roll of your back". For example, instead of railing about how bugs were in my house, that I was living apart from my family, and so forth I did my best to let go of those emotions (which didn't always work, I'll point out). Doing that allowed me to use that time and energy to focus on other things that helped get my family back home.

4. Work on what's right in front of you

When I was at work, I dealt with the stuff at my job and did it. When I was home, I dealt with things at home. When I was talking to my family or spending time with them, I provided them with love, support, and anything else I could do. All of that slowly pushed things along towards my goal. These actions weren't stress laden, OMG-I-Have-To-Work behaviors. It was essentially taking care of things that needed to be done that I could do at that moment. A good mantra to remember is, "Worry less. Just do."

5. Take care of yourself

Trying to do everything at once all the time is a recipe for disaster. Trust me, I've tried it on numerous occasions and I've fallen flat on my face every single time. If I'm tired, then I can rest. If I'm hungry, then I can go eat. If I need a break, then I can take one. If I can't muster the energy to do anything for a night, then I can take a night off. I can do that because...

6. There's enough of [insert thing here]

There's enough time. There's enough money. There's enough food. There's enough support. There's enough of [the thing that's holding you back from doing what you want]. We do ourselves a great disservice by believing that there is a finite amount of things in the world. By believing there's a lack of whatever it is we want or need, we're cutting ourselves off at the knees and telling ourselves that we'll fail before we even start working on anything. Part of that, I believe, is because we're looking at the entire picture instead of following Step 4. ("I have to go to five years of college to get my degree and it's going to cost me how much?!" instead of "Well, I can take two classes this semester." for example.) It is impossible to jump from a starting point in a journey to an end point. But, our brains love doing that for some reason. But, the biggest way this behavior is manifested is when we focus on ourselves.

7. Give yourself space and time to learn

The most common phrase people utter, I believe, when they talk about participating in activities, (i.e. earning lots of money, doing fun things, achieving things, etc.) is either "I can't do [whatever]", "Yeah, that'll happen" (said in a sarcastic tone), or some other similar phrase.

We repeatedly convince ourselves that we're too deficient to do things or we want immediate results as soon as we start working on something (so that when we fail we immediately decide that we'll never get what we wanted).

Failure is part of the learning process. It's impossible to do anything perfectly and it's also impossible to be an expert at something when we first attempt it. That's true for anything in the world. Relationships, playing basketball, negotiating, working at a job, cooking, or whatever else we're working on. If we don't give ourselves room to fail, and learn from the experience, then we make it a lot harder on ourselves to reach our goals. In some cases, patterns that we're trying to escape from will repeat themselves or something else will happen to prevent us from getting where we want to go or obtain what we want. That will continue to happen until changes are made to fix the issues or situations that are preventing us from moving on.

8. If you want things to change, then change yourself

If, for example, if people are treating us poorly, then we can examine our own reactions to those people. Are we permitting their opinions to affect how we behave or think? Is the way we're acting causing them to act in that fashion or are they just an asshole? If we behave differently, how does it cause them to react? So on and so forth.

Our world doesn't change unless we decide we're going to change something within ourselves. Using the "tossing a pebble into a still pond" example might be cliche to some people, but it's still a valid metaphor. Denying that we have to change ourselves, or examine our own thoughts and behaviors, in order to enact change in our world not only places the blame for how things are on everything else but ourselves, but it also sets up a false pretense that we're either perfect the way we are or that there's no hope or reason for us to change.

9. Look for opportunities to do different things or to make changes to your life

When we decide that "this is how life is" or something similar, then that's how things will be because we've removed the rest of the options from consideration. If we're looking for changes, it's possible that we'll find them when we're either least expecting them or when we aren't looking for them. The path from the start of a journey sometimes meanders and takes the less direct route to the destination. When we follow that path, it's also possible that we'll discover new things or be presented with opportunities that we wouldn't have before.

10. Be happy instead making happiness a goal

There are things in our lives, right now, that make us happy. If we focus on those things while working on the parts of our lives that we want to improve, then we can be happy. But, if we focus on the things that make us unhappy, then that's all we see and we prevent ourselves from being happy. There's a fabulous TED presentation on happiness that I think everyone should watch. It explains this process much better than I can.

There's more, bucketloads of things I can write here I'm sure, but my brain is running out of gas at this point. If at any point or time any of this post brought sarcasm, disbelief, ridicule, or any other negative reaction, then please comment and tell me why. I'm interested to talk about these sort of things if people are willing to do so. I'm genuinely curious. Go ahead. What do you have to lose?

Randomness

2010-03-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

Food Safety Questioned After Salmonella Scare

Remember last year when the Peanut Corp. of America recalled its salmonella-tainted peanuts?

For more than a month, hundreds of food processors throughout North America -- makers of candy, cookies, snacks and 1,000 or more other edibles -- added their brand names to the Food and Drug Administration's list of peanut-containing items that shouldn't be eaten.

At the time, people questioned why the FDA didn't pay closer attention to food that was going to be used in countless other products.

The agency's answer then was: It can't.

It still can't today. And the spread of salmonella from contamination that began in a single food additive is again racing throughout the country.

British Helicopter Pilot Shot Between The Eyes, But Keeps Flying To Save 20 Soldiers

A BRITISH Chinook helicopter pilot was shot between the eyes by a Taliban bullet - but flew on and saved all 20 aboard, The Sun reported.

Piglet, Meet Mickey

oth Canada and the United States are now moving toward approval of pork from transgenic pigs for your dinner table. It's worth moving past the initial wow factor and considering the implications of this culinary development.

The Enviropig -- that's the official name -- is testimony to Canadian ingenuity. It's an invention from the University of Guelph, where scientists got the idea of taking an ordinary pig and adding a little genetic material from mice. The result of this creation: A pig whose manure will cause less water pollution than normal pig manure.

Cops Surround House For Over Two Hours To Bust People For Pot Use (Pokerwolf Sez: Note the "Go, Police, Go!" tone of the article instead of asking why the hell enough police officers were used to surround this one house for two hours so that they could get a search warrant.)

Amazing Photographs Of a Golden Eagle And A Deer (Pokerwolf Sez: These photos were completely unplanned. The photographer was trying to get pictures of a prarie falcon and this is what he stumbled upon.)

Shakira Honored At UN Labor Agency

Shakira has received a medal from the U.N. labor agency for her work to help impoverished children.
The 33-year-old Colombian pop star has worked as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. Her Barefoot foundation provides nutrition to more than 6,000 children in Colombia, and she is member of the ALAS foundation that advocates for children across Latin America.

You Are As Old As You Feel

THE old adage "you're only as old as you feel" might really be true for millions of people.

A study published yesterday showed that people who feel older than their chronological age will experience a range of downsides. But people with a younger outlook on life do escape many of the physical problems associated with old age.

Naked Woman Tied To Tree 'Consentual' (Pokerwolf sez: Holy Embarassing Situation, Batman!!!!)

Untreated Chronic Pain Violates International Law

Untreated chronic pain is not only an epidemic, it's a crime. According to a groundbreaking new report by Human Rights Watch, the majority of the world's population lacks adequate access to narcotic pain relief. Governments are letting their own people suffer needlessly and flouting international law in the process.

Hide and Seek

The GOP talks a good game about reducing the federal deficit. So why is it ignoring Rep. Paul Ryan's detailed Roadmap?

Research Calls Forensic DNA Technique Into Question

A DNA-matching technique often used in forensics has been called to the stand.

Fine-grained analysis of DNA found in cell structures called mitochondria suggests that it can vary widely between tissues, making samples tricky to compare.

Jeffersonville Middle School Student Suspended For Touching Pill

The parents of a Kentuckiana seventh grade student say their young daughter was suspended from school for doing exactly what she's been taught to do for years - to just say no to drugs.

The girl did not bring the prescription drug to her Jeffersonville, IN school, nor did she take it, but she admits that she touched it and in Greater Clark County Schools that is drug possession.

Cities Shortening Yellow Traffic Lights For Deadly Profit

"With all of the stories we hear on a daily basis, there is little doubt that the desire for ticket revenue trumps safety concerns," Gary Biller, executive director of the National Motorists Association told AlterNet. "A quick current example is California's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who a few weeks ago proposed state budget including a proposal to add speed sensors to 500 existing red-light cameras. The reason? Safety wasn't mentioned, but an expected additional annual revenue of $338 million was."

A Former Military Interrogator Unpacks The Errors And Fearmongering In Mark Thiessen's Courting Disaster

My gut reaction on reading Marc Thiessen's new book, Courting Disaster, was: "Why is a speechwriter who's never served in the military or intelligence community acting as an expert on interrogation and national security?" Certainly, everyone is entitled to a voice in the debate over the lawfulness and efficacy of President Bush's abusive interrogation program, regardless of qualifications. But if you're not an expert on a subject, shouldn't you interview experts before expressing an opinion? Instead, Thiessen relies solely on the opinions of the CIA interrogators who used torture and abuse and are thus most vulnerable to prosecution for war crimes. That makes his book less a serious discussion of interrogation policy than a literary defense of war criminals. Nowhere in this book will you find the opinions of experienced military interrogators who successfully interrogated Islamic extremists. Not once does he cite Army Doctrine—which warns of the negative consequences of torture and abuse. Courting Disaster is nothing more than the defense's opening statement in a war crimes trial.

It May Not Be Racist, But It's A Question I'm Tired Of Hearing

Looking a bit brown still means being asked where you're from. So here's a ready-made answer for the overly curious.

Sweeteners

2010-03-11T20:29:00.000-08:00

This is Jamie Oliver. He's the 2010 TEDPrize winner and here's his dream:

Set up an organization to create a popular movement that will inspire people to change the way they eat. The movement will do this by establishing a network of community kitchens; launching a travelling food theater that will teach kids practical food and cooking skills in an entertaining way and provide basic training for parents and professionals; and bringing millions of people together through an online community to drive the fight against obesity. The grassroots movement must also challenge corporate America to support meaningful programs that will change the culture of junk food.

If you want to find out how you can help, go click the above link. The reason I post this talk, besides it being a very interesting and compelling presentation, is because anyone who has an opinion about healthcare reform needs to watch it. If you don't have time to watch the whole video, watch from 2:00 to 4:00 and pay attention to what he says. It's important.

Sugar and other artificial sweeteners are, in my opinion, the most prolific ingredients in our food today. There might be more salt, but that's the only thing I can think there might be more of overall. The proof I have of this theory is the amount of food my kids can eat in a supermarket. My kids have an intolerance to refined sugar and almost all other types of sweetener that exist (The complete list of sweeteners they can have: honey, agave nectar, stevia, maple syrup, and fructose (which is a natural sugar found in fruit)). It's not an "allergy" (according to doctors) because the reaction they have is not strong enough to trip an allergy test. The changes in my kids when they eat sugar are behavioral. Their attention spans shrink, they're more confrontational and argumentative, and when they get really angry they get more physical (i.e. they punch, kick, push, etc. more often). I believe the reason they act that way is they're dealing with severe withdrawl symptoms, but I can't prove it.

I also think a lot of kids deal with similar issues, but most people don't know about even the possibility of their kids having a similar problem. I wish I could have videotaped my daughter before we took her off of refined sugar and after. When I arrived at my parents' house for the weekend and my daughter calmly walked into the room, looked me in the eye, smiled and said, "Hi, Dad" it literally blew my mind. Why? She'd never acted that way before. It was that much of a difference.

But, I'm getting on a tangent (and I can go on about that sort of thing for hours, so enough of that). As I said before, the proof of the proliferation of sugar (and artificial sweeteners) in our food is the amount of food that my kids can eat in a supermarket.

Below is the list of food my family can't buy from the supermarket. Please note when I state "almost all" I mean there's two or less options for that food type. Also keep in mind that this is off the top of my head, so I might be missing things. Here's the list:

All canned soups, canned pasta, and other similar foods.
Almost all meat provided at the deli counter.
Almost all chips, pretzels, and similar snack food.
All cookies.
Almost all crackers.
All pizzas and other similar food.
All pre-made/microwaveable/remove-from-package-then-cook-it-then-eat-it meals.
Some canned vegetables (Example: I've found high fructose corn syrup in canned tomatoes and tomato paste)
Almost all bacon and sausages.
All lunchmeat and ham.
Almost all cereal.
Almost all bread, tortillas, and other similar food (The only type we can buy is fresh-made, artesian bread from the bakery. Please note that even most of the fresh stuff you're buying from the bakery has sugar or some other sweetener in it.)
Almost all juice.
All desserts.
All soda, fruit punch, and other similar drinks.
Almost all flavored water.
All beef jerky and other similar foods.
All candy.
Almost all peanut butter, jelly, and other similar food.
Almost all condiments (which, by the way, includes things like mayonnaise, worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, etc.)
Almost all salsa.
Almost all yogurt.
Almost all vitamins and other nutrititional supplements.
Some milk products.
Some rice, pasta, and other similar foods.
Almost all salad dressings.
All baking mixes and other similar foods.
When they get older, they shouldn't drink all alcohol, some wine, and some beer.

If you want to verify anything I've written here, go check the labels on the food. Here are the words you're looking for:

Sugar, molasses, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, fructose, dextrose, and anything else on this list.

In August of last year, the AHA completed a study that stated that Americans eat 22 teaspoons of sugar a day. What should we really be eating according to the report?

By comparison, most women should be getting no more than 6 teaspoons a day, or 100 calories, of added sugar — the sweeteners and syrups that are added to foods during processing, preparation or at the table. For most men, the recommended limit is 9 teaspoons, or 150 calories, the heart group says.

A number of years ago, I read a story where the protagonist talked about how computers worked. He said something like, "The way these work is garbage in = garbage out". That's pretty much how it works with food and our bodies too. Hell, I'm only talking about sugar and sweeteners here. I haven't even mentioned other additives.

I'm not going to take the "You guys have to eat better!" route or anything because everyone is responsible for their own health (except kids, but that's obvious). I'm just providing this information to anyone who reads this post so that the information is out there.

The Mammoth Rebuy

2010-03-09T20:09:00.000-08:00

JJ was good to me more then once tonight, ok, it was exactly twice, but I was able to finally match stacks and for a few minutes be the chipleader to card rack, and spectacular luckbox by the name of the PokerWolf. Geebus dude, how many times did you get aces? I got them once. got paid for 'em too, but that's another story. For a while tonight, he had an M of 240. Friggin' 240! -- OhCaptain

I had aces five times in this tournament. I also had a number of the big pairs and other good hands too. The above quote is very accurate considering that the good hands that my opponents did see were only about half of the quality hands I had the whole time. It was pretty insane.

My starting table was one of the most familiar I've ever had:

Seat 3: peacecorn
Seat 4: HighOnPoker
Seat 5: Your Hero
Seat 6: butchhoward
Seat 8: katitude
Seat 9: BuddyDank

This was an awesome tournament people-wise. It was a total blast.

This tournament was one of the most Jekyll and Hyde experiences I've ever had at a poker table. During the first half of the rebuy period, I couldn't win anything. I won two or three races the whole time. After watching my aces get cracked, Jordan remarked:

HighOnPoker: i hope you are wearing a cup, wolf

The ball started rolling when I won a 3 way pot with A8o which got my stack to 15k. Then, I won a pot off of Jordan when my 44 held up. Jordan had been terrorizing me when he was a big stack, which he had lost recently, and here's the chat after the hand:

HighOnPoker: now look whose tough, wolf
HighOnPoker: bully
Pokerwoolf: That's okay, Jordan. I just want your milk money.

I managed to get my stack up to around 30k and then, this hand happened which bumped me to 56k. (I'd embed it, but it's not working for some reason. Stoopid technology!)

The ball that started rolling earlier apparently started an avalanche. Awhile later, I knocked out KingofKings for a 20K pot. Then, I knocked out Jordan for a 28k pot. Along the way, I also picked up smaller pots here and there. So, here's what it looked like when the final table appeared for everyone:

I kept up the pressure and kept winning pots. I took a 38k pot off of Julius_Goat which prompted this bit of chat:

Julius_Goat: Who's Afraid of the Poker Woolf?
OhCaptain: I'm afraid his stack is gonna tip over and crush me
DDionysus (Observer): He's like a bad habit...he never goes away...
Pokerwoolf: Anyone who's seen the horseshoe I have tonight.

Then a bit later, after I reached 153k, Easycure took a 41k pot off of me which was the first time I'd lost a race since the rebuy period ended. I got back to my winning ways a bit later, bouncing Julius_Goat on a sick rivered straight. Eliminating JG got us down to five people. It would take an hour to finish the tournament.

Both Longshot1999 and OhCaptain avoided elimination pretty early on, and OhCaptain did it by having his JJ hold up against me. Note that this is only the second race I had lost since the end of the rebuy period. Longshot's luck couldn't hold up and BuddyDank eliminated him in fifth place.

Here's a bit of advice. If you're an observer, never talk about how someone is going to do in a tournament. Here's why:

DDionysus (Observer): I think Buddy is going to come back here
DDionysus (Observer): not that there is a jinx or anything.....

BuddyDank went out in fourth when OhCaptians's JJ held up. So, let this be a lesson to you railbirds! Don't jinx your friends!

I have to give a ton of credit to on_thg at this point. He went out in third, but not after playing a shortstack very, very well. There were a number of times that he could have been eliminated, but he wasn't. Once on_thg was eliminated, I looked at the clock. It was 1:23am. My chipstack was a bit over OhCaptains, but one pot could change that. So, I proposed a 50/50 chop at that point because I was beat and I wanted to get some sleep. Thankfully, he felt the same way! So, that's how it ended up:

Check out the number of rebuys! Woohoo!

I want to thank Kat for setting up a really fun tournament where I was able to hang out with people I normally don't get a chance to play with very often. There's rumblings that it'll become a monthly shindig and I hope that happens. I'll definitely be playing in the next one of these crazy rebuys!

Yup. Still Here.

2010-02-26T20:21:00.000-08:00

Playing poker every so often with "meh" results. Apparently, I'm playing well because I'm getting dinked a boatload these days. Blargh.

Otherwise, things are pretty good. Still moving the family back into the house (we're all sleeping downstairs until we can afford beds), keeping my nose to the grindstone at work (with some possibilities for expanded responsibilities there), and generally trying to keep a good groove and not let the little, everyday stuff get to me.

Unfortunately, I'm not feeling very verbose these days either.

Hopefully, that'll change.

Share the Crazy, Cheezy Dream

2010-02-25T06:05:00.001-08:00

This guy will donate all of his winnings to charities if he wins the contest. Help spread the word and help him win!!

This One's For BadBlood

2010-02-10T08:52:00.000-08:00

Musical Tastes

2010-02-09T05:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, while my wife was out running errands have having some time without the kids around, my daughter ran up to me and said, "Daddy, please play some music!"

I turned around expecting to ask her what music she wanted to hear.

Instead, I found a CD being held in the air. I grinned, took it, and put it on our boombox that's in our dining room.

My son kept playing, I cleaned the dishes, and my daughter danced around the kitchen as the Ramones blared throughout my house.

Catching Up

2010-01-19T20:57:00.001-08:00

It's bad when Iggy has updated this year and I haven't. Geez!

The reason for that is because my family is finally moving back into my house after not living there for nine months or so. That's going to happen at the end of this month, so I've been busy trying to get the house ready for them to come back. Why'd they move out?

Because my house was infested with bed bugs.

Trust me, nobody wants this to happen to anyone. I can't wish it on anyone. Truly. Most of my stuff will remain in a storage locker until after September of this year because bedbugs can live up to 18 months with no interaction with anything. It's insane.

In other more fun news, I tried Rush Poker on Full Tilt tonight. As long as you're ready for a rollercoaster and can stay relaxed, you'll do fine. Post flop play is really important, as is paying attention to what everyone else is doing. It's easy to win pots, but it's just as easy to lose them. I don't know how often I'll play, but it sure is fun!

This one is short and sweet because it's late. Catch you guys around.

Mixed Games Reminder

2009-12-27T21:54:00.000-08:00

What: Blogger Mixed Games
Where: Full Tilt
When: December 29th @ 9:30pm
Player to locate: Pokerwoolf

I'll be sitting at an HORSE table at 9:30pm. Feel free to show up and play or hang out!

Blogger Mixed Games @ Full Tilt

2009-12-17T18:02:00.001-08:00

I've been reading WPBT trip reports all week and I've been really bummed about not being able to go this year. It sounded like a grand time and I really wish I could have gone. One of my favorite times last year was playing the Friday Night Mixed Games at the MGM. With that in mind, here's the deal:

On Tuesday, December 29th, I'm logging into Full Tilt and sitting down at an empty .25/.50 HORSE table around 9:30pm.

There's no passwords to play, no high buy-in to pay, and if we have more people than we do seats, we can just invade more tables. The entire point of this exercise to spend time with friends. I didn't get to do that in person with the WPBT Clan, but that doesn't mean that we can't sit around, drink some alcohol, and still have a good time while threatening each other with massive 50 cent raises.

The last time I did this it was a TON of fun and it's high time to have another go-round. If this goes well, I'll probably turn it into an every-two-months-or-so shindig. If someone could make a banner for it that I could post, that would be even better. Help, please?

So, here's the important details again in an easy-to-read format:

What: Blogger Mixed Games
Where: Full Tilt
When: December 29th @ 9:30pm
Player to locate: Pokerwoolf

I know there might not be a big turnout since it's still technically the "holiday season" as it were, but considering that a bunch of degenerates showed up to play Pauly's Turkey Day Tournament, I think that at least enough people to fill one table will show up.

If you're interested, let me know. If you want to pass the word around, feel free. If you just want to show up and talk, then do that too. Whatever works. Just come and have some fun.

That, essentially, is the entire point.

On the Outside Looking In

2009-12-10T13:01:00.001-08:00

There's a boatload of degeneracy that's going to happen this weekend in Vegas.

I won't be there.

As I type up this entry, various WPBT freaks will be winging their way to Sin City to await their brethren who will arrive tomorrow. I have to admit that I'm insanely jealous and I hope that all of you who are going (or went, depending on when you read this post) have an awesome time.

Fun Bounty I Can't Resist: If anyone wins a pot from JJOK or Iggy with the Hammer this weekend, I'll pay them $20. Photographic proof or verification from at least two people is required.

The WPBT Gathering last year was one of those special moments of my life. I was able to meet people in person I'd talked to for years online, catch up with others that I hadn't seen in awhile, and had a crazy weekend. It still boggles my mind that we've only done this as a group six times. It feels like we've been doing this sort of thing for at least twenty. That just shows how awesome this group of people is and how lucky all of us are to have found each other.

Go throw some Hammers, tilt some cowboys, and yell at some screens in a sportsbook for me, people.

You guys all kick ass.

Now, go prove it.

Old School

2009-12-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

No stoplights, no markings on the streets for cars, and no asphalt.

My great-grandmother was born in 1904, so she was five years old when this film was made.

She lived until she was 104 years old.

Consider how things changed during her lifetime.

Amazing, isn't it?

PLO Slut

2009-11-22T20:39:00.001-08:00

My brain is dead from this tournament and working for 9 hours today. Guh. Apparently I need to play more PLO. Thanks to the Poker Sluts for setting up a fun tournament!

Treasure Seekers? Hardly. They're Nougat Farmers!

2009-11-16T12:51:00.000-08:00

Well played, Anonymous Girl. Very Well Played.

2009-11-16T10:35:00.000-08:00

From Mylifeisaverage.com:

On Halloween, out of all the maids, Little Red Riding Hoods, lingerie models and hot nurses at the Halloween party, the most popular girl was dressed as a giant piece of bacon, passing out bacon, with a sign on her back that said, 'You know you want me'. MLIA

Well, Whadda Ya Know

2009-11-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

Apparently, I can still play some poker.

I grabbed the dominant chip lead with around 13 left. Joanne and I traded it back and forth for a bit until I grabbed it for good with eight left. I made the anti-Darvin Moon call to bounce Leggo My Eggo in fourth (with a flush draw that spiked on the river, natch), took out butchhoward (does he have a blog?) with a spiked two pair (yet again on the river) for third, and then didn't allow VBPro7 to get any traction. It should be noted, however, that his Mookie prediction this week was a bit off...by about 21 spots.

If anyone wants to know who to blame for me being around again, go yell at BamBam. 100% totally his fault. Thanks again for the reminder, Bammer!

More thanks need to be said for the great time and the great company at the Mookie! If you aren't playing, you're really missing out! See you guys next week!

Stereotyping Really Ticks Me Off

2009-11-08T07:27:00.000-08:00

I've seen a lot of pooh-poohing of Muslims regarding the Ft. Hood tragedy and that American Muslims are afraid of retaliation. A lot of the comments run along the lines of this one:

"Well, the religion teaches exactly what happened in Ft. Hood, so they shouldn't be surprised about this sort of thing."

Yeah, because every single Christian believes the same thing, stones adulterers, gives up their worldly possessions, and follows their holy book to the letter too, right?

In case any of the people who believe the above read this post, I'll remind them that after when some religious zealots decided a smart idea would be to fly some planes into some buildings on U.S. soil, numerous people who's only affiliation to those terrorists was their skin color were murdered in cold blood simply because they had the same ethnicity. People (who, if you want to play the "religion and color of skin game" were white and Christian based on the demographics of the U.S.) walked into various places and killed Middle Eastern people as a method of vigilante justice to appease their anger and calm their souls.

But, yeah. Muslims are the only ones who are barbaric and commit heinous acts of violence, right?

The idea that a large group of people all believe the same thing and will act on it violently is absolutely ridiculous. That's true, regardless of whatever group we analyze.

Look, I used to work at a Christian Talk radio station. I ran the on-air board for a talk show on there for two years and every single time that a stereotypical comment about Muslims was said by the host (who was a former pastor), a Muslim listener would call up and argue that the host was wrong. This went on for a few months until the Muslim finally said:

"What issues do you have with my religion?"

The host took 45 minutes out of his show and confronted the Muslim about everything he had an issue with. The result?

The host was convinced that Islam was not a religion of hate or violence.

It is so stupidly easy to assume the worst in people due to part of a population acting like complete assholes or hearing about religious zealots committing atrocities.

Resist it. Assuming only makes an ass out of you and me. Learn the truth.

I don't care about what people's opinion about the Iraq War is. But know that one of the main reasons that stability arrived in the region is because the Islamic terrorists started bombing Iraqi Muslims. That wouldn't have been happened if all Muslims were all on the same page.

Large groups aren't comprised of people who all believe exactly the same thing. Especially when it comes to religion and politics. That's why Anti-Americanism is just as wrong as religious stereotypes.

If you are against the former, but commit the latter, then it's probably time to do some analysis and get your head on straight. Otherwise, you're a hypocrite.

Inspiration

2009-10-13T10:54:00.001-07:00

Talkin' Baseball

2009-10-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting interview with Theo Epstein:

WBCN: Obviously his OPS is always pretty high and yet when you look at his career performance based on runs scored and RBI -- and again recognizing those are traditional statistics -- it looks like it doesn't always lead to run production.

Theo: That's not true. In RBI, yes. Based on his skill set, he's always going to have underwhelming RBI totals. I couldn't care less. When you're putting together a winning team, that honestly doesn't matter. When you have a player that takes a ton of walks, who doesn't put the ball in play at an above average rate, he's not going to drive in a lot of runs. Runs scored, you couldn't be more wrong. If you look at a rate basis, J.D. scores a ton of runs, and the reason he scores a ton of runs is because he does the single most important thing you can do as in baseball, as an offensive player -- and that's not make outs. ...

Look at his runs scored on a rate basis with the Red Sox or throughout his career -- it's outstanding. And you guys can talk about RBI if you want. We ignore them in the front office. ... If you want to talk about RBI at all, talk about them as a percentage of opportunity, but it simply is not a way that we use to evaluate offensive players.

There's audio of the whole interview linked in the post and there's a link to a Sons of Sam Horn discussion about JD Drew. If you like to hear about how front offices evaluate players and other things of that nature, I highly suggest you check this stuff out. It's fascinating.

Also, I'm picking the Twins to win the one game playoff. It's on their home field, they have the momentum, and I'd much rather see them play the Yankees in the playoffs.

An Open Letter to Nancy Pelosi

2009-09-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Nancy Pelosi,

While I understand that you, and other people who were in California in the 1970s, might be bothered by the rhetoric that is being used at the moment about national health care, allow me to make one very important fact clear:

You yourself called people "Nazis".

If you were so worried and so frightened about possible violence, then WHY IN THE BLUE HELL did those words come out of your mouth?

Am I mistaken that calling someone a "Nazi" is inflammatory language and it would cause people to get angry? Isn't that completely counter-productive to the statements that you're making now by comparing the current health care situation to California in the 1970s?

How am I, as a voter and a citizen of the United States, supposed to take these new comments at face value based on what you've said in the recent past? How? It's impossible for me to do that and not suspect you of emotional and verbal manipulation. To wit:

"I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made," Pelosi said. Some of the people hearing the message "are not as balanced as the person making the statement might assume," she said.

"Our country is great because people can say what they think and they believe," she added. "But I also think that they have to take responsibility for any incitement that they may cause."

I will also point out, Congresswoman Pelosi, that members of your party, in and outside of Congress, continue to state that most of the vitrol and anger from people who do not support your party's ideas of reforming health care are racially motivated.

Based on your comments, should not these people, and yourself, be partially responsible for the current situation because of the remarks that have been made?

I certainly agree that there is too much yelling and insulting going on. That sort of rhetoric does nothing but impinge upon the ability of our country to move forward and work towards resolving this issue.

But, Congresswoman Pelosi, if the feelings you have stated in the article I linked above are honest and true, then please be the first to admit your own wrongdoing. Your words will fall on deaf ears otherwise.

Sincerely,

Pokerwolf

Typing For The Sake of It

2009-09-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

I should be sleeping.

Yet, here I sit, typing away at a keyboard because my mind aches to create words and slap them onto a page. The desire for others to read them are also there, obviously since this is posted to my blog, but the ache in my chest to send letters spinning across a computer screen to land in neat, orderly rows is too great for me to ignore.

Thus, my head is not on a pillow nor is my lap absent of cat.

I’ve neglected this side of myself recently. I haven’t written, cooked, taken photographs, played music, or used any other variety of a creative method in awhile. It’s a deficit I only recently noticed, nevermind fully realized. I’ve done other things with my “free time”: videogames, reading books, going out with friends, and so on. But, those uses of my time do not feed me like the creative processes that I know do and I would be wise to remember that fact and to make sure those things are not lacking from my life.

There are other deficits that exist in my life as well. Time being the largest of them and the management of it a close second. Yet, if I focus on those things, the only thing I have to look forward to is more deficits instead of the things I truly desire: happiness, love, production of quality work, fun times with my friends, and so on.

For example, I can look back on my weekend and see all of the negative incidents and lament about how they went, that they occurred, and how I can’t seem to blah blah blah blah blah. On the other hand, I can state that I spent time with my family, had a wonderful time playing with my children, visited the Ren Faire for the first time in at least three years, got some exercise (from walking almost the entire Ren Faire grounds in less than two hours! Oy!), put together my childrens’ new bikes, spent time with my friends, worked on improving my perspective, and did my best to resolve and/or correct the negative situations that occurred this weekend.

Going back to the Ren Faire was quite an odd experience. So much has changed while so much has remained the same. There are parts of the Faire that are simply frozen in time. Certain shops that, if they ever close, would most likely leave a hole in time and space because it seems impossible that something else would replace them. Yet, at the same time, the people and the places are constantly changing and shifting. So much so that the idea that they won’t change is impossible to consider. It’s quite a contrast and it’s probably one of the reasons that people are drawn to similar places every year. I’m trying to come up with an analogy involving caterpillars and butterflies, but unfortunately it’s late and my brain can’t make the proper connections. Ah, well. Perhaps next time.

I wish I could say that these scribblings have satiated my cravings for creating things, but alas it appears they’ve simply whetted my appetite. Such is the way of things for those of us who attempt to bring the worlds of our imaginations into the physical realm. Thus, have I written my piece for this early morning. Another mark on the page, another notch in the post.

The Band With The NSFW Name

2009-09-01T14:17:00.001-07:00

Name of the band and the video are NSFW.

Song is 100% awesome rock n' roll.

Nostalgia

2009-08-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I met with one of my friends from high school that I hadn’t seen in at least five years. The last time we saw each other, we said a quick “hello” at our 10 year high school reunion and that was it. Over the course of two hours we caught up with each other’s lives. Where we worked, what we did, and so on. It was a fantastic conversation and I’m really glad we were able to sit down and chat. After I left his house, I called up some other friends from high school and chatted with them a bit. I tried to get them to come hang out with me and another friend from high school that lives in the local area, but no dice. Can’t win ‘em all, I guess.

During this entire time while I was driving, I was driving down roads and passing by places that I used to frequent in high school. The comics shop. Friendly’s. The neighborhood where I lived and I hung out with my next door neighbors and my friend down the street. The Baskin-Robbins I worked at in high school and during college. My friend’s house where we made our own shows with a video camera. The friend I umpired Little League with during my sophomore year in high school. Various restaurants that I stopped at with my high school choirs. The gas station where we held carwashes for fundraising. The 7-11 that we’d stop at after theatre shows. My old high school. The townhouse where I spent most afternoons during my senior year in high school. On and on and on.

It just hit me that I’ve been in this area for eighteen years. EIGHTEEN. I almost can’t wrap my head around the concept that I’ve lived in one area for almost two decades. Considering that all the way through my college years I’d lived in different places every four years, this is quite a change and it happened when I wasn’t paying attention. Or at least it feels that way.

I’m so glad that the internet exists and I’ve re-connected with a lot of people I’ve known in the past. What’s really amazing is that when I’ve talked to them, it’s like we’re picking up where we left off. The conversation I had with the friend I haven’t seen in awhile was basically filling in the blanks. There wasn’t really a “getting to know you” period or any uncomfortable feelings. We just picked up where we left off and caught up. It’s a very, very special thing to experience and I’m glad I’ve been able to do that with a bunch of people that I thought I’d never see again.

It’s special. I’m glad I get to appreciate it.

Make With The Clicking.

2009-08-12T07:07:00.001-07:00

Very worth it. SFW.

DBAD

So, So True

2009-08-07T05:50:00.000-07:00

As I was waiting for an elevator, one of the members of the facilities department walked up and pushed the "down" button. When the "up" elevator arrived, I walked in. He started to follow me, stopped, looked up at the arrows on the wall and said, "Which way are we goin'?" as he made sure he was getting on the right elevator.

Without missing a beat, another member of the facilities team (who was in the elevator I had entered) said, "Crazy."

The guy who asked the question pointed at her as if he was saying, "Girl, you damn right." as the elevator doors closed.

I chuckled the whole way back to my cube.

This is pretty awesome

2009-08-03T08:15:00.001-07:00

Attention, Music Lovers

2009-07-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

Allow me to introduce you to Dub FX. Please keep in mind that the video below is a live performance and it's being done on the fly.

If Anyone's Surprised, Please Let Me Know

2009-07-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Delaware,

Give us our cut or we'll mire you in a neverending legal battle.

xoxox,

American Professional and Collegiate Sports

Status Update

2009-07-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

A bunch of people have asked how I'm doing recently (or "What's going on?") and since it's better to start with bad news and move to the good, here we go:

- I'm living in a bug infested house.
- Currently my A/C unit, my garbage disposal, and my dishwasher don't work. I was hoping it would be the outside power lines, but no dice. So, either I have to replace and/or rewire part of my house, or I have to hopefully fix, but maybe replace, my A/C unit (which is a minimum of $1500 because we have an old 80s thermostat that needs to be replaced too), my garbage disposal, and my dishwasher.
- I don't have any fresh food in the house (and I can't cook much) because my fridge still needs to get cleaned out. (I would have done that TODAY, but...)
- I had a deadline dropped on me ("This work needs to be done today!") at 3pm today. I usually get off of work at 4.
- I finished working at 10pm and I'm going to be finishing everything up tomorrow.
- I'm still finding dead bugs in my house.
- The preceeding fact means that I can't move any of the stuff that's piled up in the back of my house anywhere.
- It also means that I can't have anyone visit here.
- My house is empty except for me...and my fish. The rest of my family (including the two cats) are currently living with my parents.
- It takes me 3.5 hours to drive to my parents' place from my house...without traffic.
- My family has been living with my parents for going on five months.
- I only get to see my family on weekends.
- In order to have my family move back into my house, I have to not see bugs for a minimum of a month.
- I don't know when my family will be moving back home (because I'm still finding dead bugs in the house).
- I'm sleeping on a cot with no sheets (to discourage bugs climbing up them) with an air pillow.
- There aren't any curtains in my house for the same reason that I don't have sheets on my cot.
- So, when I'm downstairs, I don't have any privacy.
- I don't have the TV hooked up yet and my XBOX360 might be busted.
- My camera is definitely busted.
- I'm bored as hell at work, but I haven't figured out what I can do yet that pays me the same amount of money (or enough to keep my family afloat) that I'd really enjoy.

So, yeah. There's a few things I'm dealing with at the moment. On the other hand...

- I love my family and my family loves me
- I get to spend time with my wife and kids every week
- My co-workers are great to work with
- My friends and family care about me and support me
- My computer at home works (Thank all that's Holy!)
- My stand alone freezer still works (I was worried that it was busto due to the electrical problem and I'd have to throw all that food away. *shudders*)
- I'm still staying positive (although that's hard some days)
- I'm still growing as a parent and as a person
- I get kid snuggles
- I play pirates, cowboys, and anything else my kids can dream up
- My son and daughter yell, "DADDY!" and run at me with their arms open when I arrive
- My wife is an AWESOME kisser
- I married my high school crush
- I have two Cat Overlords who demand petting time
- I still get along with my parents (and so does my wife) after having my family live with them for over four months
- I see my friends on a regular basis
- Once my family gets back into the house, we can fix it up the way we want it (give my daughter her own room, etc.)

There's more, for both lists, but that's all I can come up with at the moment.

If you're amazed at how I'm managing to deal with this whole situation, here's the main reason it's happening:

There isn't any other alternative.

In all of the other possibilities, I'd lose something (my job, my family, my house, etc.) and those aren't things that I can allow to happen. So, here I am. Why do I remain positive regardless of everything that's going on (to the best of my ability)?

Because otherwise, I wouldn't survive. Really.

I was clinically depressed (telling people I was busy when they'd call me up to do things and so on) during my entire final year at college. I know what the alternative is to looking at the positives and doing my best to be happy. It's not a fun place to be and I want to avoid being there as much as possible. My weapons to do that are: love, a positive attitude, and the support of my friends and family.

Right now, I'm using all three to just hang in there. Ugh. I feel like I'm doing the "two steps forward, one step back" walk, but I'm trying to be patient and believe that things will turn out okay. Because they will in the end. We just have to ride things out and get there.

So, there ya go. That's what's going on with me.

Sounds Great to Me

2009-07-13T12:39:00.000-07:00

Many reading this may not want to be bothered by the theology of it all. But it is not the religious lesson that has stuck with me all these years. It is simply that these four men believed in their friend and wanted nothing more than for their friend to be well.

It begs he question, what if we took the challenge to believe in our friends. If we would be willing to pick them up and carry them where there need to be. This is not a plea for enabling, it is more an idea I have brewing. If the faith and the determination of these four men could change the life of their friend, what can we do in modern day U.S.A.?

We all have this innate power that very few people tap into. We have the power to be a support to someone else. Do you think anyone got anywhere in life on their sheer determination? NO. Because though the term is self-esteem, we learn to believe in ourselves, because someone first believed in us.

Go read the whole thing.

It has a RSS feed set up, so we can all follow along. This sort of thinking is flat out AWESOME. If only one other person gets inspired to do something for their friends and family because of writing like this, then it's worth the effort.

Kudos, Nicholle Beretta. Big, big kudos. Keep up the awesome work.

Welcome Back, Nomah

2009-07-08T07:01:00.001-07:00

When Nomar Garciaparra was traded to the Chicago Cubs, the Boston Red Sox were playing in Minnesota against the Twins. Because of this, the fans never got a chance to give him a proper send-off.

Five years later, as a member of the Oakland A's, Nomar Garciappara returned to Fenway Park.

Check the video. Does this happen in other sports?

1:10 of a standing ovation for a player that's playing for an opponent.

God, I love baseball.

Ye Verily!

2009-06-29T20:24:00.001-07:00

Facin' the Book

2009-06-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize just how many people I've met through poker until I signed up for my Facebook account. I told myself that I would only friend "people I know" so I wouldn't have that many updates to follow.

The joke's on me, isn't it?

It's crazy to stop and consider that I've known some poker bloggers for over four years. It's one of those "Wait, what?" moments that I don't really consider unless I stop and add everything up.

[I'd write more on this subject, but I'll fully admit it's 1am and the topic completely flabbergasts me. That pretty much sums up my emotional reaction, so there ya go.]

I'm hoping to make a (triumphant?) return to some blogger tourneys in the next two weeks, so keep your fingers crossed if you like dead money that shouldn't be staying up that late playing at your table. What can I say, I'm a giver.

Life is still 100% topsy turvy, and doesn't look to right itself soon, so poker is a distraction from real life for me at this point. I'm reading up (I'm thumbing through Ace on the River at the moment) and doing my best to learn from my mistakes when I can play right now (about once a week), so I'm treading water if nothing else. That doesn't stop making me feel like I've been passed by in comparison to a lot of people in the poker skill department when I mentally stop to look around, but they've had the time to focus on their games more than I have.

I'd rather spend time with my kids (which I can't do during the work week right now). It's a long story which is going to take even longer to complete.

To cull the rumor mill, I'm still happily married. That's not an issue and I don't think it will be for a long time, if ever. I'm just in one of those "shrug your shoulders, suck it up, and deal with it" situations which I get through best by putting my head down and taking things one step at a time until it's done.

I just wish it was over already.

That would make my life a hell of a lot easier (and I'd get to play in more blogger MTTs).

C'est la vie.

What Do You Want?

2009-06-09T18:27:00.001-07:00

It's a simple, yet not so simple question:

What do you want?

There are hundreds, if not thousands of different answers to that question and they're different for every single person. No answers will be quite the same, although some of them will be similar for different people.

What do you want?

Is it wealth? Happiness? Power? Health? Sex? Something else?

Or do you not know?

That's a perfectly valid answer, you know. But, doesn't that pique your curiosity?

Ask yourself, "What do I want?". Go ahead. Take a minute.

**Post Paused Until Reader Returns**

Do you know?

Again, if you don't, that's okay.

Do you want to know?

Or are you nervous? Worried? Afraid?

You don't have to be...

...if that's not what you want.

See how that works?

Now, let me point out something very, VERY important. We're talking about what "I want". We are not talking about what "I don't want" because those are very two different things and focusing on what "I don't want" only means that we're asking for more of the stuff we don't want to show up in our lives.

Wait, did I confuse you there? Okay, let me back up.

Here's how the Universe works. What your brain focuses on is what it's going to "see". What your brain "sees" is going to affect how you a) view the world, b) interact with the world, c) set your expectations, d) set your goals, and e) live your life.

So, for example, if you think that you aren't worth loving, then you're going to arrange your life, your expectations, your view of the world, your goals, and your actions to make that true. Because that's what you think you want.

"But, that's not true!", you argue, "I don't want that!"

Right. Which is why we don't focus on what we don't want and instead focus on what we want.

Still confused? Okay, here's another example:

Let's say that when you work, you have to deal with a large section of the general public. During the time you deal with the general public, you end up dealing with a bunch of stupid people. "Aw, man! I don't want to deal with stupid people!", you say to yourself. That's a problem! Here's why:

By saying, "I don't want to deal with stupid people!", you're also saying, "I deal with stupid people!". Which means that you've told your brain that when you work you're going to deal with stupid people. So, your brain says, "Oh, okay. When we work, we deal with stupid people". That thought sets your work expectations and your work views which then affect your work actions. Then, your work actions will affect your work experience during the day which will encourage stupid people to find you while you're at work.

Why? Because your brain is programmed to see "stupid people" when you're working. That means your brain is focusing on those people instead of all the other people that you deal with during your work hours. On top of that, because you're expecting to deal with stupid people, it's entirely possible that some non-stupid people start acting "stupid" (in your opinion) because of how you're interacting with them which is based on your own expectations!

Does this sound a bit ludicrous? Have you rolled your eyes or something similar?

Okay, then. If you don't believe what I've written, riddle me this:

If I decide that I want to deal with polite, intelligent people when I'm working, my decision won't create an environment where I'm going to be doing what I want all of the time. But, wouldn't my decision to interact with polite, intelligent people inform my brain that a) I'm looking for polite, intelligent people, b) have me act in a manner that subconciously informs the people I'm dealing with that I think that they're polite, intelligent or both, c) encourages those same people to BE polite and intelligent, and d) improve my tolerance for dealing with the lamebrained, idiotic, stupid people that don't get my message?

Yes. It does.

That's why we state what we "want" instead of what we "don't want". Because by focusing on what we don't want, we tell our brains to bring more of that crap into our lives.

Here's another quick example: Have you ever written a list of requirements or items for something that you want? The last time I was laid off, I filled out the standard "what do you want" list on Monster.com for jobs I was interested in finding. I checked off that I wanted a casual dress work environment, a place where I could work in a team or by myself, an environment that encouraged open communication between management and employees, and I selected an area where I wanted to work.

The job I have now meets all of those requirements. Why? Because that's what I wanted and it was what I was looking for.

The amusing thing is that I almost didn't go to the interview with my current employer. They called me out of the blue ("We saw your resume, can we interview you?") and I, thinking that I could go talk to them for interview practice, agreed. I had convinced myself that I was going to work for another company that I had an interview lined up with later in the week.

That is, until I went to my "practice interview". Yeeeeeaaaah. "Practice interview". Sure.

My point is that when you sit down and establish what you want, think of the End State. If you want a lot of money, think of having a large bank account. If you want a nice house, think of what it would look like and what it would feel like to live there. So on and so forth.

One more thing: Don't bother or worry about how it'll happen.

That's not important. Really. What's important is focusing on what you want and believing you'll get it. That way, everything you do will be focused on reaching that goal. Which sets everything else in motion to draw you closer towards whatever it is you want.

Yes, it's that simple.

Really.

Don't believe me?

Try it and find out for yourself.

Start 'Em Young

2009-06-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

Right Wing Extremists

2009-06-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

Remember that DHS report that came out awhile back about "right wing extremists" that caused a number of people to get upset at the Obama Administration?

John Cole references it to make a very valid point.

Drive Safely

2009-05-27T16:37:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit off-kilter at the moment.

Yesterday, as I was driving home, I witnessed a car accident. I'm not entirely sure what the driver that caused the accident was thinking when she attempted to turn left across the busy road I was on, but whatever the reason (distraction, the wet pavement, she didn't see the car, etc.) she was driving 10-20 mph and piloted her car into a location where a car going 35-45 mph had no time to stop.

My eyes widened because I saw it coming. I turned off my car, grabbed my cell phone, and ran out to help. I'll spare you the details of the scene. It wasn't physically horrific, but I'm still trying to overcome the after effects of being deluged with the emotional energy of a hysterical woman who was hurt and a hysterical mother that had an injured son (who was very brave and should get a medal for staying put until the emergency medical services could assist him).

Listen, I know it's been repeated ad nauseum by a ton of people, but please pay attention when you're driving. If you're ever unsure about the distance between cars, take the two minutes or so and wait until you know you'll cross the road safely. I watched a guy miss causing another accident by less than a foot in the same intersection this morning.

Hurrying to get home is not worth possibly ending up on a body board.

It just isn't.

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T20:34:00.001-07:00

Grrreeeaaaaatttt, TTthhhhaaannnnkkkkksss...

2009-05-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Task Lead,

While I'm willing to help out the team and work extra hours to ensure that our product gets tested and into production on time, let me make one point crystal clear:

If you ever pull the crap that you pulled tonight again, I'm going to turn into Mt. Vesuvius on your ass.

As I said before, I don't mind working after hours sometimes. That's part of the job. However, completely fucking my night over and then telling me that I can "start tomorrow" is absolutely unacceptable.

I had plans to go to a poker game tonight. Live poker with my friends. That's something I rarely get to do and I had been waiting for two weeks to play in this game. So, what happened?

First, you informed us that we would be working late THIS MORNING.

Then, you told us that we would have a status meeting at 5pm.

Fifteen minutes later, you told us to check our email at 6pm and that you were cancelling the 5pm meeting (this is what caused me to miss the poker game, by the way. I was planning on working and then playing, but you screwed that up).

At 6pm, you stated that we needed to check our email at 7:30pm because things weren't ready for us to do our job.

At 7:30pm you stated that one part of our setup wouldn't be ready until tomorrow and then you said that we could work on another part of it "soon".

At 9pm, you said that things were ready to test, but then you said that I could start working on it "if I wanted to do so".

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Look, TL, that's a load of horse shit. If you were willing to let us wait until tomorrow, WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY THAT AT 7:30PM????!?!?!??!??!?!??!

You completely fucked me out of my whole night. For NO REASON.

Thanks for nothing, you idiot. I'm now wondering how you manage to function on a regular basis. The only thing that's getting me through this situation is the fact that I'm temporarily assigned to work for you and then I get to go back to work for people who know how to fucking manage a project.

In short, FUCK YOU.

No love,

Me

(Note to readers (if anyone reads this damn thing anymore, that is): This situation is why I'm not posting often. Fucking fuckers.)

Protest Crowds =/= Election Crowds

2009-04-17T05:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Smug Idiots Who Don't Know How To Compare Things,

Thank you for showing you don't know how to properly make a comparison.

If you wanted to make a point, you could have compared an Obama election crowd with a McCain election crowd. Or compared an anti-Bush protest crowd with an anti-Obama protest crowd.

But, no. You had to go for the visually beneficial picture so you could smugly snicker at people who are being true Americans and voicing their opposition to the current government in power.

It's also rather stupid of you to sneer and treat these protesters with disdain when people from your own party did the exact same thing to the previous Administration. The public met Cindy Sheehan for a reason, okay?

I can understand disagreeing with them or ignoring them. But, not only are you giving them more attention and print space by doing this sort of thing, you're angering people at the same time. Anger motivates people which means you're adding more people to the other side of the argument.

The best thing anyone could do for a protest is what has suggested in the past. Have people stand on the opposite side of the protest holding signs that say, "I Respectfully Disagree" along with other signs that promote their own agenda without degrading the other side. Civility and respect go a long way. Unfortunately, some protestors think the whole idea of a protest is to slander anyone that opposes them. That only gives ammo to their opponents which (again) angers and motivates people.

So, those of you who want to compare political movements, please use your brains before posting something idiotic like the above linked post. That way you don't look like am imbecille in public.

No love,

Me

The Plan

2009-04-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

After dealing with having my life turned upside down for a few weeks, I think I finally know how I'm going to deal with this situation:

1) Keep My Chin Up

It's not always going to be possible, but dealing with things with a positive attitude is MUCH better than trying to do things as a pessimist. The former allows me to get things I need done, support my family, and relax. The latter only will stop my progress and hinder me.

2) Deal With Things As They Come

There is no way I'm going to be able to wrap my brain completely around this entire situation without stressing out. This problem is too big and too complex to do that. So, I'm taking it one day at a time and dealing with things as they happen. I don't have time or energy to consider "what if", especially since most of those thoughts are worst case scenarios.

3) Have A Sense Of Humor

I have two options. I can cry about things or I can laugh at them. I'm trying to do the latter as often as possible.

4) Don't Do This Alone

I have friends and family who love and support me. There is absolutely no way I'm going to be able to deal with this situation on my own. I'd be stupid to attempt it.

5) Have Faith And Be Patient

I know I'll reach where I want to go. I just have to let things happen of their own accord, do what I can, and get there when it's reachable.

6) Play Poker

I've been able to play here and there and it's good for me to stretch my brain and be challenged. Although, I need to pay attention so I don't end up playing any more LHE MTTs. I like Limit, but UGH.

SIGH

2009-04-08T19:05:00.001-07:00

The only problem with researching something on the Internet is a large percentage of the time every source will either contradict the others or they won't have the same information.

At this point, all I can tell about how long it's going to take to get the bugs out of my house is "A long goddamn time".

Which defninitely isn't the answer I wanted to find.

I'll be over here drinking some beer.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Haven't Quit Writing Here

2009-03-28T19:20:00.001-07:00

I've been overwhelmved by events in my life. If you want the whole story, check it out over here.

Argh!

2009-03-12T19:13:00.001-07:00

Did you ever want to write after thinking of a bunch of different ideas you can write about which all vanish as soon as you sit down to write them?

Yeah.

Me too.

I'm Still Here

2009-02-23T19:52:00.000-08:00

The date and time for this post are going to be incorrect when I post this (I’m lazy and I don’t want to bother with back-dating this post), so for the record I’m writing this from a laundromat at 9:20pm on February 23rd in the year 2009.

The laundromat is well-lit and dingy at the same time. If you want anything out of the vending machine or you want to play a video game[1] it’ll cost you a dollar. The only language spoken here is Spanish, which fits the demographics of my town, including the soap operas that are being played on four TVs that hang in each outer corner of the room. The room is split in half by a bank of dryers which all face outward from the center of the room. Little girls are giggling and running around while pushing the laundry carts hither and yon to amuse themselves while they wait for their clothes to wash or dry.

Being white makes me stand out in the first place. Having long hair, a bright red winter jacket, and banging away on a laptop makes me as out of place as an alien species on Earth[2].

I’m standing[3] in this place waiting for my laundry to dry because late last week our dryer decided that it wanted to try to commit a fiery seppuku to show that it was ready to be replaced[5]. The timing of the dryer’s suicide isn’t the greatest. Especially considering that the model of dryer that we want was out of stock and it will be delivered “as soon as possible”. That status is normally a bad situation for a delivery to be in, but let me add in some wrinkles to fully explain my current situation:

- When I left work today, I had officially worked over 240 hours since January, 15th. That sounds bad to hear, but do the math to fully understand what I’ve been going through recently.

- On Saturday, I have two friends from Canada visiting my house. One of them I’ve never met. The other one I haven’t seen for at least a year and a half. Based on the previous bullet, and considering that my wife was dealing with two kids on her own while I was working, our house is obviously a complete disaster[6].

- Now that we have established that I’d really like to clean my house to some degree before my company arrives, let me run down what I know, at this point, that I have standing in my way from doing that this week: I have to go grocery shopping. I’m working at least one night this week and possibly two depending on how things go that first night. I’m dealing with my daughter anytime she wakes up during the night[7]. I’m restricted to working on the house only when my son is awake or after he is asleep. Currently, the timeslot for him going to sleep is 9:30pm to whenever he falls asleep. On a good night, that’s around 10:15pm. On a bad night, that’s 11:30pm. It’s a total crapshoot. Oh, and I have to sleep. At least that’s what I’ve been led to believe and I've been trying to prove that it's all a lie if I just work hard enough at it.

While some people will try to soothe my feelings about the whole situation[8], I’m writing this post for one specific reason: So I don’t freak out. If I don’t get this down somewhere, I’m going to snap at someone or worse. I don’t want that to happen to my family, my friends, or my co-workers, so here I stand banging away on a keyboard to make electronic letters appear on a screen while the garbled noises from the televisions battle the humming and whooshing noises from the washing machines and dryers both try to assault my ears.

At this point, I’ve realized that all I can do is put my head down and do as much as possible. I was pinging about the entire situation earlier, but I considered my options and I realized that I don’t have the time or energy to wibble, worry, throw a fit, or anything of a similar nature. What needs to happen, and will happen, is that things will get done. Finished. Finito. Hasta la bye-bye.

I spoke on the phone with a friend of mine earlier tonight and she said, “You’re A.D.D. brain is freaking out.” While that’s true[9], I’m not letting it slow me down or stop me. Because, in my opinion, any sort of designation like that allows people to use it as a crutch or to make excuses. I fully understand that some people who have A.D.D. need medication to help them get through their day to day lives, but I’m not one of them. I don’t see my mental state as a “problem” that “needs to be fixed”. It’s how my brain works and I have had to learn, and continue to learn, to recognize and discover the obstacles that are thrown in my way as I work towards reaching my goals. Is it hard? Certainly. Is it more difficult for me to do some things than other people? Sometimes. But, it’s important to remember that Life isn’t a race to reach a finish line. Everyone finishes their journey at the same endpoint and we all arrive at it at different times. What we do between the starting line and the finish line is what matters. Sure, some people try to take shortcuts. Sometimes those work and sometimes they don’t. It’s not up to me to try and justify one way or the other. I’ll fully admit that I get angry or frustrated when people get away with shady, disrespectful, selfish, or despicable acts[10] and if I focus on what they’ve done and expend a ton of energy on screaming about them while I don’t expend the same amount of energy on myself, my family, and my friends then I’m the one that’s going to lose[11].

That’s all I’ve been doing for the past month and a week, really. Busting my ass and trying to survive. There hasn’t been any other choice and there won’t be until my workload slows down (which it will a bit because our schedule was extended, but that means I might have to work this weekend[12]). My target date for this madness ending is March 13th.

Now all I have to do is get there and hope that I won’t work another 120 hours or so between now and then. Ugh.

=========================================================================
[1] Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga
[2] If I could pick what planet I’m from, I’d choose Ork in an instant.
[3] The only seats are by the doors which blast cold air whenever they’re opened. Thanks, but no.
[4] There is no number four.
[5] No visible flames, but my wife smelled “something burning” with the dryer door closed while she was about 10 feet or so away from it.
[6] If either one of the people that are visiting this Saturday are reading this, then clam up with the “It’s okay” stuff. Stop for a minute and ask yourselves if you’d freak out just as much if someone you’ve never met before and an old friend were visiting and you have no time to clean. Yes, exactly. Now hush.
[7] Which is happening a lot less frequently, but it still does happen on occasion.
[8] I said “Hush” and I meant it. Get your fingers away from those keyboards!
[9] I have the psychological evaluation in writing to prove that I have it.
[10] In my opinion, anyway. Other people can and will feel differently depending on the situation.
[11] This is why I haven’t posted about politics recently. I’m very cynical about the entire situation and I think the Administration is using a boatload of smoke and mirrors while they mortgage our future away.
[12] If this happens, I will officially Be Very Angry. I’m going to talk to my boss about this tomorrow and tell him that I’ll do almost anything to avoid working this weekend.

Another Quickie

2009-02-11T20:07:00.001-08:00

Apparently, a lot of people are starting to agree that poker is a game of skill instead of being completely based on luck. It's going to be interesting to see where this goes in the next couple of years.

I'm giving 6-max LHE a shot these days because it's a cash game with action. My first foray went well, so we'll see how this goes. If my results are half as good as this first foray, I'll be very happy to continue to play this version of the game.

I would be remiss if I didn't give Cardgrrl a link. Her blog is very well written and it's a lot of fun to follow along as she tries out being a poker pro for a year. Check it out. (Thanks for the great tip, Grump!)

Drive-By Posting

2009-02-10T19:59:00.000-08:00

Work is completely and utterly kicking my ass right now. I've worked over 130 hours in the past three weeks and I'll be working for a third straight weekend this weekend.

But, I'm still alive.

And I can manage to make a post like this.

Ugh.

Super Bowl XLIII

2009-02-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a game! I'm glad the Steelers pulled it out, but if the Cardinals had won I wouldn't have complained too much. That being said, here's an open letter:

Dear Grumpy Cardinals Fans and Other Fans That Hate the Steelers,

The referees did not hand the game to the Steelers. Not even close. I was very glad that they didn't give the touchdown to Big Ben in the first quarter especially since there was a lot of "Here we go again" sentiment in the room where I was watching.

Yes, the roughing the passer penalty was ticky tacky (one opinion I've heard is that penalty was called because the defensive player extended his arms, but I can't see how he could have pulled up anymore than he did) and the hit on the field goal holder was dumb (not just because of the penalty, but Wilson probably could have avoided him if he really wanted to do so), but that's probably an ironclad rule (i.e. "no contact shall be made with the holder" because the holder is watching the ball and is considered "defenseless" from an oncoming rush).

For those people who are screaming about referee bias, I'll point out that if the Steelers hadn't been given a safety, that play would have been a 20 yard completion to Holmes for a first down. If that play doesn't happen, Fitzgerald doesn't break into the clear to give the Cardinals the lead. Considering that the Cardinals completed five plays in the first quarter, I think the Steelers would have cruised to victory if the safety didn't happen.

The reason the Cardinals lost was because their defense couldn't stop the Steelers offense. Period. End of story. The exact reasons for why they didn't (bad coverage, tired players, etc.) don't really matter in the end. What matters is that they could have stopped any of the three passes to Holmes and they didn't do that.

Also, the Warner fumble was called correctly because when he moved his arm forward, he didn't have any fingers on the ball. It was sitting in his palm because the defender had a hand on it.

Lots of armchair quarterbacks (including me) are now debating the calls that were made by the Zebras and most of them, in my opinion, are legit. It's obvious that various infractions were missed, but that's a part of the game. I'd say the same thing if the Cardinals had won. If you go watch the NFL Gameday Super Bowl highlight video, even the broadcasters are disagreeing about the calls by the referees (Important note: Big Ben didn't deserve an Intentional Grounding penalty when he threw the ball away. They did the analysis during the Super Bowl broadcast and they showed that he made it outside the pocket).

No love,

Pokerwolf

---

I was very happy to see that I won a bundle of imaginary dollars when the Steelers didn't cover. I thought that if the line was any higher than 4 points, then taking the Steelers was a bad bet. Too bad I didn't put any money on the game. Of course, if I had done that, then the Steelers would have covered and I would have probably lost anyway. That's generally how it goes.

I really hope that the NFL continues to produce Super Bowls like this one. They've been really good games for the past couple of years. I'd rather see a close game instead of watching a blowout.

Filler

2009-01-25T19:58:00.000-08:00

While I try to figure out who the heck I'd bet on for the Super Bowl (and I'm a Steelers fan!), here's various things to look at:

State lawmakers bet gambling can help with budgets (It'll be interesting to see how all of this plays out in the next couple of years.)

Pittsburgh Pengins sign Eight-year-old to a one day contract (The pictures are AWESOME. I love it when this stuff happens.)

Teen Goalie Designs Pads to Trick Shots (I'm surprised no one has thought of this idea before!)

Here's two cat videos that are hysterical. Enjoy:

New Family Members

2009-01-18T05:50:00.000-08:00

Read about how they showed up over here.

[Insert something here]

2009-01-15T12:15:00.001-08:00

This space has been quiet mainly because I don't really know what to write about for the moment. Sure, I've played in some cheapo SnGs now and again, with varying results, but writing about poker doesn't interest me at the moment. Considering I don't play very often these days due to time constraints that shouldn't be surprising, but it is.

If Obama and Company are really serious about their website and the promise about the higher ranked issues getting more attention, then people should definitely go add their votes for the legalization of online poker there.

In other gambling news, The governor of Delaware might legalize sports betting in his State. If he really does it, he'll just expand the gambling rights at racetracks most likely, then things will get VERY interesting for gambling laws this year especially considering the state of the economy.

My Super Bowl picks are the Steelers and Cardinals. Which means that a Ravens/Eagles Super Bowl is not out of the question because I usually suck at picking football games. However, the Ravens offense flat out sucked against the Titans and if the Cardinals defense stops the run against the Eagles as well as it did against the Panthers, then the Eagles are screwed.

The possibility of wearing my Steelers jersey to a Super Bowl party is a pretty staggering thing, honestly. Based on the number of sacks that Big Ben was taking in the middle of the season I didn't even know if the Steelers were going to make the playoffs. Now they have and they're the favorites against the Ravens? I'm stunned.

I'm not handing the game to the Steelers (because Steelers/Ravens is always a tough matchup), but the Steelers seem to be clicking better than the Ravens. But, it's really hard to beat a team three times in one season. That's why they play the games I guess.

I hope anyone who reads this that's up North is keeping warm. If anyone needs someone to blame for all of the cold weather, I think I know a good scapegoat.

God, I'm writing about the weather. That's enough from me.

39 Hours in Vegas

2008-12-18T19:18:00.000-08:00

"Las Vegas is not a baseball town, of course. Vegas is a boxing town. Vegas is an event town. Vegass is a tuxedo town, a chandelier town, a Cher town, a magician's town, a dirty-joke town. Vegas is an on-the-rocks, Siegfried-and-Roy, white-tiger, Danke-Schoen, cigar-smoking, Ocean's-Eleven, roller-coaster-through-the-lobby,Eiffel-Tower-replica town. Vegas is the kind of place, as Boston Red Sox senior adviser and baseball oracle Bill James says, where it costs more to get an Internet connection in your room than to have an escort sent up. When you saw World Series here, people think poker." -- Joe Posnanski, Sports Illustrated, 12/22/2008

Gearing up for this trip, my first to Vegas, was an interesting experience. I plotted out what I wanted to do and planned out everything I could think of in my head at least one month in advance. In other words, I was pretty excited about the trip. I packed the night before, printed out my flight information, and woke up on Friday pretty refreshed and ready to go.

I drove to the airport, parked my car in the economy parking lot, and headed into the airport with an hour or so to go before my flight. Upon entering the airport, I saw an easy check-in kiosk, so I headed over, inserted my credit card, and waited to get my boarding pass.

The screen stated that I needed to talk to Customer Service, so I picked up the phone and went through the motions. That's when I heard a sentence that nobody ever wants to hear, especially when they're at an airport getting ready for a weekend trip they've been waiting to go on for months:

"Sir, that flight doesn't exist."

After hearing that statement, I literally was wondering if I was going to make it to Vegas at all. Apparently, United Airlines decided to change my flight and they never told me about it. What that meant is that I was bumped from a non-stop flight to Vegas to a flight to Chicago with a layover. One one hand, I was really upset that this had happened. On the other, I was still going to Vegas. So, I sucked it up, got my boarding passes, and headed to Chicago.

The flight to Chicago went pretty quickly (it's only an hour and a half or so) and the flight was pretty laid back and quiet. Stepping off of the plane into O'Hare was like getting clobbered with a baseball bat made of sound and stress. I had mellowed out on the flight and entering a bustling airport filled with people who are on the go really caught me off guard.

While I was on the flight, I looked at my boarding pass for my Chicago flight and couldn't believe what I was reading. My flight landed in Chicago at 1:15pm. My flight from Chicago to Vegas was supposed to take off at 5:45pm.

That's right. I went from a non-stop flight to a four hour layover in Chicago. I was definitely not amused.

After deplaning, I found a set of monitors that listed departing flights. I quickly scanned through them and found a flight to Vegas that was leaving at 2:35pm. Luckily, the bank of monitors was right next to a ticket counter, so I headed over there and asked about getting on the earlier flight. After being reassured that I wouldn't lose my seat on the later flight if I didn't get a seat on the earlier flight, I was put on the standby list. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

I chuckled to myself when I realized that I had already started gambling and I hadn't reached Vegas yet. Waiting to find out if you're on a flight is a real nerve-wracking experience. Especially when there's a monitor that displays the standby list and the number of available seats on the flight. Having that information means I stood around waiting while I watched the number of seats on the earlier flight slowly dwindle as the clock inched towards the flight boarding time.

With 9 seats left on the plane, and my name third on the standby list, I was handed a boarding pass for the earlier flight. I had won my first bet of the trip! I got a nice bonus when I found my seat on the plane too. I was sitting in the Economy Plus section which meant extra legroom! The only bummer about my flight to Vegas, other than finding out that some people on my flight had been stranded in Chicago since 10am due to the windshield blowing out of their plane, was that there was a child in the back about halfway through the flight that started having hysterics because he wanted his Mommy, but he had to be put into his own seat due to turbulence. There is nothing worse as a parent than knowing what the problem is with a kid and not being able to do a damn thing to alleviate the situation. Especially when you have two hours left in the flight and you're trying to sleep.

Flying into Vegas around 5pm allowed Mother Nature to show off her splendor. The views were really magestic and I'm considering going up in a helicopter or plane to take pictures on a return visit sometime in the future. As the plane was landing, and I was staring at the Strip, I looked at all the casinos and wondered aloud, "How many people come here to throw away their money?"

I had an answer of sorts when I exited the plane at 5:30pm. The vibe was overwhelmingly negative. I chalked that up to people going home broke and/or hungover as I made my way out to the taxi stand. I called one or two people when I hit the ground, but I couldn't get in touch with anyone. So, I jumped in the cab and headed to the MGM Grand to see if I could meet up with my roommate or any other bloggers who were in that general area.

I arrived at the MGM and tried to get in contact with Jordan again with no success, so I headed over to the poker room with suitcase in tow. After wandering around for a bit, Jordan and I met up in front of the poker room. He stated that he needed some time away from the table because he just lost a pot to CK. I missed a golden opportunity to earn a buck when I asked what happened and didn't ask for proper payment. (You can send it to me on FT, Jordan. No worries.)

After dumping my stuff and changing into a fresh set of clothes, we headed back down to the poker room to see what was going on. Jordan sat back down at his table and as I was checking out the scene, Iggy wandered over and introduced himself. After we caught up for a bit, I called Kat and discovered that she and Joanne were headed over to the MGM. The New Yorkers decided they were going to have dinner, so I railbirded Iggy while I waited for Kat to show up. A few minutes later, Drizz and F-Train hit the scene and we caught up on what had been going on with each other and how things were shaking out for each of our Major League Baseball teams. Then, Kat and Joanne arrived and after hugging Kat and finally meeting Joanne after knowing her for four years or so online, they headed out to dinner while I grabbed an open seat at a 1/2 NLHE table.

Generally, when I sit at a table one of the most important things I pay attention to is the vibe. It sounds goofy to write it out, but how the table feels tells me a lot about the people playing. The table I sat down at didn't feel comfortable at all. It felt cautious, reserved, and unwelcoming. I soon discovered why when during the next hand almost everyone folded to the pre-flop raiser. I was sitting with a bunch of tight people looking to play a serious game of poker. While I folded a few hands, I suddenly realized that I recognized a player that was sitting across the table from me. I didn't want to say anything to give anyone else any information, so I bided my time and kept my mouth shut. After another hand or two, the announcement that some 3/6 mixed game tables were opening up hit my ears and after a moment of deliberation, I grabbed my chips and headed over to grab a seat. As I sat down, I looked at the player from my previous table (who was sitting down in the seat to the right of me) and I grinned and said, "Hi, Maudie." We both chuckled over how we ended up at the same table and how quickly we both packed up and ran due to the other players as the rest of the seats filled up at the table.

Playing with Maudie and me were CK, Iggy, GMoney, VinNay, Jordan, Maigrey, some other bloggers I don't remember (sorry, guys!)...and Juan. Juan stands out for two reasons: 1) he wasn't a blogger and 2) when he sat down he stated, "I haven't played any split games before." We found out later that he was looking for a fun game to play and ours sounded interesting, so he gave it a shot. He held his own for a decent part of the time that we played (he was the only other person to start and close the table other than CK and me), but he ultimately gave all of his chips away due to drinking too much beer. I was down about $100 at my low point, but considering that prop bets (picking a card and getting paid if it came on the flop), tilting people who missed getting paid on the prop bet ("You missed a Queen AGAIN, John!"), drinking Fat Tire (the Official Vegas Beer of Wolves Can Shuffle Cards), and hanging out with people were the priorities I didn't mind much. I finally met Gene at that table (he was playing F-Train's stack) and Spaceman, his wife, and Speaker made appearances too. I'll apologize here if I didn't include your name on the list of people that I met. That game was a whirlwind of cards, beer, and smack talk, so everything else went by the wayside. Considering that Linda managed to take a picture or two and I didn't notice says a lot about how much I was paying attention to things not going on at my table that night.

Once the table broke, I headed over to the bar where I met Biggestron, Columbo, Pushmonkey72 (get me a link and I'll put it here), caught up with BG,Iggy, Kat, and a gaggle of other people that I don't recall at the moment. After hashing out plans with Jordan for the next day and bidding him goodnight (i.e. reassuring him that I knew the room number), I babbled with various people about various topics for a few hours. After a large part of the crowd had already split, the rest of us hopped in cabs and headed over to the IP. Our destination was the pai gow tables, but they only had one running and it was loaded with bloggers, so Iggy, Kat, Pushmonkey, and I headed to the next logical location: The Geisha Bar. More deep discussions were had while consuming alcohol (a tequila shot with Kat of some of the lowest shelf tequila that I've ever been served, plus more beer) followed and when I started zoning out, I bowed out and cabbed back over to the MGM to crash. When my head hit the pillow, the clock read 5:30am.

The next thing I knew, I was wide awake. The first thing I noticed was that Jordan was not asleep. After that fact registered, I glanced at the clock, which read 10:30am. After conferring with Jordan about plans, we got cleaned up and headed down to the MGM buffett to meet up with Peaker. We grabbed some food (which was a nice spread, if a bit pricey) and after eating Jordan and I headed over to the Venetian. After grabbing my player's card, so I could play in the poker tournament later in the day, we headed over to Casino Royale for 100x odds at their $5 craps tables.

Our table was crowded and slightly rowdy when we dropped our money on the felt and we picked up chips. The spot we picked put Jordan next in line after the current shooter busted out (which he did after throwing a point or two). Jordan tossed a point or so, and then I threw three or four. Not too bad for my first time throwing the dice. The people near us were cordial and we were passing out fist pounds for every point that we hit. After one or two shooters who flamed out pretty spectacularly (throwing craps on the second throw? Boooooo!) on older guy about halfway down the table went on a run and threw for 20 to 30 minutes straight. After checking our watches, Jordan and I grabbed our chips, cashed out up $200 each, and headed over to the Venetian to register for the tournament. After getting our seats, which were right next to each other suprisingly, we discovered that we had a little more time to kill, so Jordan and I hunted down a 25 cent Wheel of Fortune slot machine and gave it a go. I ended up +$50 after hitting the "Spin" logo three or four times, so I grabbed my ticket vouchers and we headed back to the poker room for the start of the tournament.

I'll admit here that I waffled about playing in the tournament up until that morning. I didn't have a lot of cash to throw around and I didn't think I was going to play a lot of poker during the trip, so I wasn't planning on playing. My mind changed because of how much fun I had the night before and I also didn't want to miss out on the fun. I'm very glad I made that decision.

The first thing I noticed was that I was sitting between Jordan and Joanne. Ugh. Snuffy was at my table as were PKPNF (aka The Artist Formerly Known as Neil Fontenot), EmptyMan, OhCaptain, Sean (anyone know who he was or what his blog is?), and a few other people I don't remember unfortunately. Honestly, most of the tournament is a blur of cards, watching for information, and focusing. I played with a bunch of people Blinders, Smokee (I can't believe I can't find a link for him, but I can't at the moment), Peaker, Michalski, CK, Karol, Maigrey, PirateLawyer (sorry for no link), BadBlood,and a host of other people I can't think of right now. Thankfully, I did pay attention enough to go introduce myself to Linda and chat with her for a bit. I also met Kearns and chatted with Dawn a bit too. Otherwise, my head was only thinking about poker and by the way that I played it showed.

Placing 11th in the first live tournament I played in is something I should be proud of, but it's hard not to think about the bad plays that I made or what could have been. The hand that stands out the most is when Maigrey (who went on to win the tournament) shoved with her miniscule stack when we were both in the blinds. It was just 7k more on top of the 2k/4k blinds plus the antes, so I called with my J5o. She had J2o, hit her deuce on the flop and took it down. Another hand that sticks out is the hand I had to fold to OhCaptian's re-raise on the flop. That's where I lost a good chunk of my stack, although even if I had it both of us would have gotten our money in anyway in the hand where his A9s outflopped my JJ which sent me packing. I was frustrated at the when I busted out and it showed when I slapped the table with my hand. It's rough watching people nurse micro-stacks and then watch them last longer than me. I'm uber-competitive, so that's how it goes.

Jordan told me that I had "played really well" and looking back on it, I have to agree. Although, it didn't feel like it at the time because I was "just playing", so it didn't seem out of the ordinary. Congratulations to Maigrey for taking down the tournament and to OhCaptain for making the final table after being down to 11k at the 2k/4k/100 level. That's some serious poker playing.

After I busted out, I hung out with Jordan for a bit and then headed back to my room to crash because I had an early flight. I woke up around 6am on Sunday, hit the airport, got my ticket fiddled with AGAIN (because they did it incorrectly in Chicago, so the system thought I had used my return ticket already), got on my non-stop flight, and arrived back home around 3:30pm. I drove home to my family and was officially home from vacation at 4pm.

Thanks to everyone who made it out to Vegas, especially those of you who I spent time with. It was a fantastic trip and I can't wait to do it again.

Incredible Themes

2008-12-08T20:06:00.001-08:00

I'm not that big of a movie watcher. My Netflix queue is loaded mostly with documentaries and MMA DVDs. However, since I'm married to a movie junkie and I have two kids, I watch a lot more of a variety of movies than I normally would. Especially movies made for kids.

Recently, when my family visited my parents' house for Thanksgiving, my Dad put on The Incredibles so my kids could watch it. I hadn't watched it in awhile, so I sat down with them and we enjoyed a good superhero flick. However, this time around, I noticed a theme that I didn't before.

In worlds that contain superheroes, there's one unspoken theme that is always true:

Average citizens are helpless.

They get beat up if they're getting mugged, they run in fear when super-villians show up, and they never, ever do anything to defend themselves. This underlying, unspoken idea is why superheroes exist. To "save the day", right wrongs, and so on and so forth.

There's good things and bad things about this idea, which is why parents should always talk to their kids about what they're watching/reading/etc. and what the kids think about it, but The Incredibles takes this theme one step further than most superhero movies do.

The superheroes of The Incredibles are funded by the Federal Government. No funds from the Government equals no superheroing. Repeatedly, Mr. Incredible gets into situations where the Government Lawyer talks about "pulling funds" and "relocating" and other standard lingo for a specific type of worker: a government contractor.

Or you can take it one step further and state that The Incredibles attempts to turn the Goverment into a superhero guild.

Let's be honest and state things up front: I'm interpreting what I've seen, so people can feel to disagree with me. But, let's review a couple of things:

1) As I wrote earlier, superhero's can't exist in the universe of The Incredibles if they don't have government funding. If they aren't superheroes, they have to get real jobs.

2) All superheroes were entered into a "Witness Protection Program" by the govenrnment to hide them and integrate them into "normal" society.

3) Based on his actions, Supreme's funding is cut by the Government Lawyer at the end of the movie. That's because he didn't play by the rules.

So, if you don't play by the Goverment's rules, you're not a superhero according to The Incredibles. In other words, the Government is the reason superheroes exist.

Now, let's go back to that theme that exists in all superhero universes that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. The one where I stated that average citizens are helpless. Since the Government in The Incredibles is the reason superheroes exist, then logically the Government is what swoops in to save average citizens that can't save themselves.

Is this idea far-fetched? Possibly. But, it's something to consider and it will make me pay more attention to the themes in the movies that my kids watch from now on.

Are You A Slut?

2008-12-07T08:48:00.001-08:00

WBCOOP!

2008-12-03T18:12:00.000-08:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 795618

I'm in! Woohoo!

Blatherings

2008-11-29T20:20:00.000-08:00

When writing a blog post, it's generally a good idea to have some central theme to write about in order to craft a well-written entry with a centralized point.

This isn't going to be one of those posts.

Tomorrow I'm heading home with my family from the Thanksgiving revelry that occurred over the past couple of days. I've spent time in the hot tub, spent time with my parents, spent time awake late into the night with my kids (definitely not by choice, but that's a part of parenting), and spent some time with my wife while my Mom watched the kids. Overall, it's been a good trip. Sure, there have been some moments of stress and so forth, but that comes with having various family members together under one roof, especially when one of those family members is four years old and another is 18 months old. We've snapped a bunch of pictures, a lot of which were of family members, but I was able to get out and take some artistic shots (or at least that's how I hope they turn out anyway) too.

I've played some poker recently (two cash sessions which almost even out with the leftover being a slight amount in the loss column, a MTT which I tried to push a guy who couldn't fold TP out of a pot on a scary board, and a Double or Nothing SnG on Stars where I made a bad decision to get bounced in 14th), but it's nothing really time consuming and I'll admit that I'm kind of donking around. I'm interesting in playing more often in the coming days, but that's entirely dependent on my schedule and how my kids are feeling each night.

I'm interested in the NFL, but not overly so. I am glad that the Steelers are doing well and I'm amused that everyone thinks the Jets are going to go to the Super Bowl at this point. Yes, they beat the Titans, but they'll have to run through the Patriots, the Steelers, the Ravens, or whatever other teams might end up in the playoffs. Farve is a good player, but he looked friggin' amazing last year until he made it into the playoffs and then he laid a big goose egg. He also doesn't play defense. I'm not saying it's not possible, but I am skeptical. I'm also keeping an eye on the Red Sox and I'm waiting for the official confirmation that Schilling has retired. I don't know if he's made a decision or not, but I've been hearing an awful lot of rumblings about it, so we'll have to see. I'm glad the Rays stepped up last year and made the AL East more interesting. I'm hoping the Jays follow suit and that Peter Angelos gets his head out of his ass and either actually fields a competitive team or sells the Orioles to someone who gives a damn. The NHL is also catching my interest and it's great to see more teams playing great hockey instead of continually having the same teams be dominant over and over again. It'll be interesting to see if anyone can topple the Red Wings, how long the Sharks can play at their current level (ditto for the Caps, Bruins, and Rangers), and who the emerging stars will be this year on the ice.

Vegas is in two weeks. I can write that, but it hasn't completely hit my brain that the trip is that close. I have almost all of my plans in place, but I don't know if I'll be able to let it all sink in until the night before because of how much stuff I have going on at work. I'm excited to go, but I haven't hit the "OMGVEGAS" feelings yet. I'm hoping those won't hit until the day before, otherwise my work output might suffer. I do have a To Do List in my head, but it's really short at this point. The less plans the better, honestly. That means I can go with the flow and have a great time. Which is the whole point.

All right, I have to go see if I need to put my son to bed (I voted for chloroform or giving the kid alcohol, but the wife vetoed it.....I keed, I keed). I'll catch up with whoever is reading this, if anyone is, later.

Thanks

2008-11-27T19:26:00.000-08:00

Since it's Thanksgiving and all, I thought I'd write down some of the things I'm currently thankful for:

- I'm thankful that I decided to learn how to play poker because of what the game has taught me about myself.

- I'm thankful that poker is such an accessible and easy game to learn, not only for the bad players that play the game, but because the game can be played in any setting.

- I'm thankful that I decided to start writing this blog because of all of the wonderful people that I've met because of it.

- I'm thankful that I've met a decent number of those people in person and that I'll be meeting even more very soon.

- I'm thankful that I'm going to Vegas in two weeks because my job is kicking my ass right now.

- I'm thankful that I have that job and that I can support my family during the current economic downturn.

- I'm thankful that I have my family because I love them so much.

Vegas

2008-11-18T19:42:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like working late three out of five workdays to make me appreciate time spent with my family. Currently, I'm averaging an hour and a half a day with my kids. That doesn't sound like much, but considering what other people have to deal with regarding time with their families, I imagine that they'd switch places with me in a heartbeat. Just a hunch.

As a culture, we've been conditioned to want everything we can't have because we're told that we're never good enough, we're ugly, and we completely suck. One of the ways that people try to forget the repeated self-defeating mantras that our culture espouses is to head to an exotic location, throw caution to the wind, and act like they don't have a care in the world.

Usually, one of those places is Las Vegas, but even Vegas isn't safe from the current economic situation. I've been mulling over what exactly I want to get out of my trip there in early December. I've noticed that as plans are made and events are scheduled (like the tournament that I won't be playing in due to budget issues) I'm discovering that I might have a lot more free time than most people who are making the trip that weekend. There are pluses and minuses to that situation, which I'm also thinking about, and I'm alternating between feeling like I'm not part of the "cool crowd" who gets to play and feeling liberated because I don't have to park my ass in a seat for a couple of hours to hand over my cash to another blogger. (I haven't played any poker in months except for one home game and playing tournament poker with bloggers when you haven't been playing on a regular basis is like deciding to throw an object into a crocodile pit and then going in after it to get it back.)

I haven't really wandered around a town in a long time (and raging solo does have it's allure), but the main reason that I'm making this trip is because of the people who are going to be there. I've been put in a unique situation where not only did I want to make this trip, but someone flat out demanded that I make it happen. Which is why hanging out with that person is at the top of my very short To Do List when I hit Vegas.

Part of me is a bit starstruck with the idea of visiting Vegas (this is my first trip after all), but mostly I'm very wary of that town because I know exactly how tourist towns work and 99.9% of the people there aren't the sort of people that I'd generally want to be around on a regular basis. Living in various countries around the world teaches you pretty fast about how to deal with people in locations where people congregate for vacations. You either learn fast or you're taught some abject lessons about learning quickly. While Vegas is generally "safe" on the Strip (at least safe enough for a trip in a wheelchair or two), I'm not the sort who cuts loose and throws caution to the wind. I'll definitely cut loose, but I'll still be cautious. That's just how I'm wired.

My roommate and I are storing our bags at the MGM (along with a couple of other people hitting town that weekend too from what I understand), so that's going to be my de facto home base and starting point for my trip. I imagine I'll end up at the IP, the Venetian, and possibly Gold Coast after the weekend is over, but I guess I'll see how all of that plays out. I'm not making too many plans for a reason, but I'll definitely be around to meet people I haven't met before and to hang out with people I haven't seen in way too long.

It hit me yesterday that Thanksgiving is happening next week. I'm so mired in my work schedule that things are sneaking up on me. So, don't be surprised if you see a "Sweet Barking Cheese, Vegas is NEXT WEEK!" post or something similar from me very soon. Since I'm shut up in meetings for most of the days I'm at work right now, I'm definitely experiencing the prairie dog effect regarding things happening outside of my job.

If you know you're going to Vegas in December, drop a comment here and let me know about it.

See you guys in a few weeks!

Is This Thing On?

2008-11-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

You never really realize how much you miss the Internet until you're forced to deal with a lengthy outage of your home internet service.

The fun part is I don't know if my connection is solid yet. Ugh.

So, while I haven't posted, the WSOP has started again (still don't care), we elected a new President (I didn't like either popular candidate), and I bubbled out of a home game tourney in a standard Riverstars hand. I was actually glad to play some poker, but my game was pretty rusty due to not being able to play at home online. It's amazing how much you forget when you don't play for an extended period of time.

Of course, since I wasn't on the computer, I was doing other things around the house.

Like taking care of two sick kids, for example.

Add in that work has just gone from "Wait, I'm working?" to "Wait, I get to breathe?" levels and the overview of how things are going for me right now is fully explained.

Here's my first "I can't wait for Vegas in December" comment. Because it's true.

Rough loss for the Steelers on Sunday, but once the idiotic idea to throw at the end of the first half is pointed out, everything else was a slippery slope. Nice dramatic ending with that near-miss bomb, though.

I love the fact that the Titans just proved they're a well-rounded team. Apparently, someone told them that they were considered a "run only" team. Guess again!

Here's hoping that my internet connection holds and I get back to posting more regularly around here. It would be a nice change, especially since people are talking a lot about that sort of thing these days.

see more captioned pictures

It's a Dog

2008-10-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Some people need a new hobby.

Nevada Jacks

2008-10-30T04:53:00.000-07:00

The folks over at Nevada Jacks offered me a free chip set to do a review of their website, so I went and checked it out. I'll point out that while this is a "paid" review, everything written here is my own opinion and Nevada Jacks has had no input on it at all.

The website is laid out very nicely and it's fairly easy to navigate. The only annoying thing that I found on the website is that the "Poker Chip Sets" link on the main page leads to the Poker Chip Set FAQ instead of going to the chip sets they're offering for sale. If you want to find those, you have to click on the Poker Store link and then click on the "Poker Chip Set" link in the menu on the left side of the screen. Then, the poker chip sets they have for sale will show up.

Going back to the Poker Chip FAQ, the main thing that sticks out on it for me is that shipping for 300 and 500 poker chip sets is free. That probably means the shipping costs are built into the price, but that's more appealing than dropping an extra $20 or more to get the chips that I've ordered. Especially when they ship with 2-day delivery. That's pretty sweet.

The chip sets that Nevada Jacks offers can be standard chip sets or you can request a customized denomination when you order your chips. The chip styles they offer are kinda limited, but if you don't see a graphic that you like, or if you have a specific graphic in mind, there's a set of chips that will display a custom graphic. Custom chip sets are also offered, but be ready to pay for those because they aren't cheap.

Nevada Jacks Customer Service is easily accessible, speedy, and very helpful. They'll answer any questions you have and if they can't answer them, a Gaming Specialist (check the FAQ for the number) will probably be able to help you out.

Overall, the Nevada Jacks website is well done. Check 'em out when you get the chance.

What's that word again? Po.....po....po-something...

2008-10-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

I managed to sit down at the virtual felt tonight. It's the first time I've done so in half a month. I took a small loss (being card dead for most of the session and missing flops with every pocket pair does that sort of thing), but I kept it a small loss and dipped my toes into the pool again, so I'll consider it a win.

Why haven't I been playing more often? For the same reason that I've concluded that MTTs are off limits for at least the next year or two. My 16 month old son. More specifically, that my 16 month old son has decided that he's a night owl and the earliest he'll go to bed is 10:30pm. It's been an interesting time trying to figure out how to manage to get "me" time for my wife and I, never mind any extracurricular activities like poker. I honestly don't know how people with more than two kids manage it. Supposedly, it's easier that way, but I don't think the wife and I will find out.

In other news, I've been slammed at work due to a new contract, so I don't have much time to relax these days. I'm definitely counting down the days until December 12th. Should be a good time, for sure.

Hopefully, I'll get more time to play before I wing my way to Vegas to hang out with my fellow degenerates. Ring rust is never a good thing, especially around a crew like that.

Politics, Part Deux

2008-10-09T11:05:00.001-07:00

Memo to the GOP:

If you're going to bitch about how Obama pronounces "Pakistan", perhaps you should educate your candidates on how to pronounce "nuclear".

Regards,

Me

Politics

2008-10-09T10:59:00.001-07:00

There is a constant diatribe that has grown ever louder (and will probably continue to grow) as we inch towards November 4th.

"Those liberals blah blah blah blah blah!"

"Those conservatives blah blah blah blah!"

If you want to insert Obama, McCain, Palin, or Biden in the appropriate place, go for it. The message is still the same with different words.

This sort of commentary goes on incessantly. It's always derogatory and states that the person who is doing the talking is superior to the subject that is being stated. The current buzzwords that are included in the mix are "change", "reform", "fixing", and other terms that signify that things aren't currently working properly. There's a large focus on the economy and other things involving government funding and influence when these comments are made. Nothing else is really discussed.

Which, I think, is the problem.

If voters in this country really want "change", then here are some ideas, in my opinion, we can use to help out that process:

1) Hold the members of Congress of your own party to the high standards that you have for all of the other political parties.

If they do something unethical, condemn them. Then, don't vote them back into office. If people were as scathingly critical of the members of their own party as they are of members of other parties, then politicians would actually pay attention instead of simply patting their constituents on the head and doing whatever the hell they want to do.

2) When results don't occur for an important issue, hold all members of Congress responsible.

Here's the deal: The people in Congress who are currently blocking legislation in Congress will change places with the other people who are currently screaming that the legislation is being blocked sometime in the near future. It's an interchangeable situation and there are times when those people change places during one election cycle.

Regardless of who does what, there are still no results for that issue (which can be a good thing from time to time, but not always).

3) Understand that Congress does not have the interest of the American Public in mind when they make their decisions.

The latest example of this unfortunate situation is the bailout bill. 200 economists from various universities wrote a letter to the President and Congress stating that the bailout would be a horrifically bad economic decision. Lots of citizens contacted those same people and stated that they didn't want the bill to pass. Congress passed it anyway.

4) Vote in State and local elections.

If we want to enact any sort of change, we have to enact it on EVERY LEVEL of our government. If we want to deal with the government that affects us the most on a day-to-day basis, then we need to increase the amount of attention that State and local elections get. When I was a senior in high school, a Congressman from my State told me to my face that he'd rather have me NOT vote than vote for him in an election. Why? Because that means he has less people to worry about during his election campaign. The number of long-term incumbent State and local government officials is ridiculous. They usually get that way because only a small amount of citizens vote in State and local elections.

5) If we're going to discuss politics, let's actually DISCUSS things.

Go back and re-read the examples of political commentary that I provided at the beginning of this post. Does that sound like a disscussion to anyone? It's not and that style of talk is parroted throughout the media on a daily, if not hourly basis. Pick any well-known political talking head, go watch or listen to their program and I'll bet you money you'll hear those "liberal" or "conservative" comments AT LEAST twice. That's not a good thing.

The United States of America has the word "United" in it. At this point in our history, the citizens of my country are ANYTHING but "united" politically. Unless, of course, we're bitching about our government. Approval numbers for BOTH parties are in the toilet and for a good reason. At the moment, they both suck. They both suck because they're using argumentative language and stereotypical labels to distract voters while they make all of the decisions, adding riders that have no relation to the originating bills they've been added to, and pulling other political shenanigans. The amount of falsehoods, rumor, and other trivial bullshit that's being spouted by political media on BOTH sides is utterly staggering. It's also insulting, despicable, and only serves to lie and mislead voters.

Is this the sort of BS that we want? Lies, half-truths, and political advertising deciding how we should vote and how our country should be run?

It's happening. It's HAPPENED for YEARS.

And the political parties, and their candidates who are currently running for office, are happy to keep things that way.

The Leak

2008-09-27T19:34:00.001-07:00

After an eventful day, the wife and I were getting ready to head to bed. It was a Friday night and our 16 month old son had decided to stay up later than he usually did, so my wife was keen on hitting the sack. Once she started for bed, she discovered that some laundry had been left in the washing machine and it needed to be run on another cycle to ensure that it was clean. I told her not to worry about it, started up the washer, and told her to go to bed.

After playing some videogames and fiddling around on the computer, the washer finished its cycle and I started loading the dryer and hanging up the wash. On a return trip from grabbing some hangers, I noticed that there was a spot on my carpet which wasn't there before. Thinking that was rather odd, I knelt down, grabbed another hanger, and hung up some more clothes. When I looked at the floor again, there were two spots on my carpet. What surprised me even more is that they were damp. I checked the area around the washer for water or leaks, but it was bone dry. Wondering what the heck was going on, I glanced around trying to figure out just what the heck was going on. My attention was grabbed by my water heater. More specifically, it was grabbed by the numerous droplets of water that were leaking out of the top of it.

There are certain points in a person's life where an event causes that person's brain to attempt to claw its way out of the back of the skull in order to deny the image that is being presented by the body's eyes. If this person was in a cartoon, a small "BOOM" would be heard and smoke would come out of the person's ears. Based on experience, I can state that this is what your brain does when confronted with the possibility of 50 gallons of water invading your house. Especially when the time that the attack will begin is undetermined.

I believe I stated "Oh, fuck" or something similar, but I honestly can't tell you exactly what I said due to the previously mentioned mental state. I grabbed some towels to soak up the water, put them down on the floor, and then woke up my wife. It’s amazing what the words, “The water heater is leaking” does to a person’s mood when you bring it up when they’re half-awake. If there was a way to bottle that stuff, I’d take out any product that sells caffeine in a few months.

Upon arriving downstairs, we started getting the water out of the carpet, and I shut off the water to the tank. In a perfect world, that would solve or at least alleviate the problem we were facing, but there was 50 gallons of “No, sorry, you’re still screwed” water in front of our faces. The wife headed to the computer, threw our information into Servicemagic.com and we went looking for a plumber with 24 hour service. Here’s the thing that’s totally awesome about Service Magic: after you’ve put in your criteria, it sends e-mails out to the people on its roster who are qualified to fix your problem. I’ll point out here that at the time that our request was sent out it was around midnight on a Friday night and we had a busted water heater. That’s quite an obstacle to get any semblance of help.

Our phone rang ten minutes later.

Apparently, because competition is so fierce, a number of workers who are connected to Service Magic have their e-mail requests sent to their Blackberries. That was the case with the plumber I spoke to about our situation. Once he determined that our water heater wasn’t in imminent danger of unloading all of its water, or that it hadn’t done so already, he gave me instructions for draining the tank and we set up an appointment for between 8 and 9AM the next morning. After hanging up the phone, I got to work.

The standard procedure to drain a water tank is to turn it off at the electrical panel for the house, attach a hose which ends somewhere outside, and then start draining the water from the tank. I say “standard procedure” because a large percentage of the time my family does not find itself in standard situations. Based on the fact that I had to re-arrange most of the furniture in my office in order to access my electrical panel, this situation certainly belongs in that percentage of events.

After re-arranging most of a room in my house and cutting the power to the water tank, I hooked up the hose, and let the tank go about the business of emptying itself. My wife and I finished sopping up water from the carpets and the concrete floor around the tank, then I sent her to bed after telling her that I’d run out to the store and pick up some water so we’d have some in the morning. I knew I was going to be up for awhile, so I watched March of the Penguins which we’d just received from Netflix. After finishing the movie and fiddling around on my computer for a bit, the tank was finally empty. I then made a quick run to my local 24 hour supermarket for the water, made it back home, and finally fell into bed around 3am.

My four year old daughter woke up at 7.

Remembering that the plumber would be arriving in an hour or so, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for the day. Upon his arrival, he inspected the tank and stated that he’d have to go out and buy a new one because he unfortunately didn’t have any that matched it in stock. That was fine by us, so off he went. After installing the new unit, we realized that my old water tank was still under warranty, so we called GE to sort things out. GE informed us that we could take the old tank to Home Depot (where the new tank was purchased) and they would refund us for the price of the old tank. So, the plumber and I headed over there and checked things out. Home Depot did the whole deal. They refunded the plumber the money for the new tank and gave me the equivalent price of my old tank. That was a really sweet deal considering I would have had to pay twice as much money if my tank wasn’t under warranty. Always read your warranty paperwork! We wrapped everything up around 11am and our ordeal was finally over.

All in all, this event could have been much, much worse. There was little to no water damage in my house, we were able to get help quickly and easily, and we saved some money in the process. But, there is one thing that I have learned from this situation:

I really don’t need to have that kind of excitement start my birthday ever again.

Attention, Carnivores Who Live in the U.S.A.

2008-09-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

My wife and I went to our local Bloom Supermarket tonight and discovered that they're selling London Broil Steak for $1.78 per pound instead of $4.99 per pound. One steak I grabbed I bought for $3.33. The original price on the steak was $9.33.

We checked out the steaks and they're not even "get rid of them because the sell by date is close" steaks. Ours are dated to sell by next Wednesday.

Get the point? Get over to your local Bloom and grab as many of these ASAP! I don't know how long the sale will last or if it was just a fluke at that store (not likely because the price was on the stickers too).

Why are you still reading?

GET GOING!

Obey Us, Citizen

2008-09-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

Dos Palos students protest after school forces sophomore to remove American flag shirt

Officials at the Merced County school confirmed Thursday that Jake Shelly was forced to take off a red, white and blue tie-dyed American flag T-shirt on Tuesday. The shirt said nothing offensive, just: "United States of America, Washington, D.C."

The school's assistant principal issued Shelly a bright yellow T-shirt that read "DCV: Dress Code Violator" to wear for the rest of the day. He was given his shirt back after classes ended.

"It was really embarrassing and humiliating to have to wear that all day -- and just for supporting your country," his sister Kaycee Shelly said.

Kaycee Shelly told members of the media at lunchtime that her brother was overwhelmed and did not want to do any more interviews.

Earlier in the day, he was speaking with a local news station when an unidentified teacher walked up to him, ripped off the microphone clipped to his shirt and told him he was not allowed to talk to the media.

District officials said they apologized to the student, his family and the local American Legion on Wednesday -- Constitution Day.

"In reviewing the dress code at the time, an administrator felt the shirt was in violation of that section of the dress code," said Superintendent Brian Walker. "She asked him to remove it and he did."

The assistant principal initially thought Shelly's T-shirt violated a clause of the school dress code that does not allow "shirts/blouses that promote specific races, cultures, or ethnicities."

(emphasis mine)

I'm getting to the point where I'm simply waiting for things in the United States to implode. What the fuck are we doing to our kids these days? I mean....I just.....there just aren't words.

A Confession

2008-09-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't played poker in 12 days.

The only reason I know that is because I looked up the date in my records. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to tell you how long it had been. Poker hasn't really been on my mind honestly. Sure, there have been the "maybe I can play tonight" sort of thoughts, but poker is more of a distraction these days instead of something that I really want to dedicate a ton of time to right now.

Will that change in the future? That's definitely a possibility. Part of the problem is that the only real access I have to poker at the moment is online. Sure, it's convenient and easy to use, but it's just as easy to not play because of those reasons. I'm playing once or twice every two weeks or so because that's all the free time I have.

My kids are running me ragged (which I won't complain about unless I'm being woken up at 2am or so), my job is keeping me busy (I'm starting a new contract on the 26th of this month), and there's other stuff that I'd rather be doing than sitting in front of a computer trying to outsmart other virtual chip slingers.

I'm not completely out of the game, but I'm definitely more on the sidelines than I used to be.

Donate to help a needy family

2008-09-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here's the whole story.

"As many of you know my son has been diagnosed with a very rare form of brain cancer. This is something that has devastated and displaced my family (my wife and I have 3 kids). We were supposed to go to New York City for a treatment that would help him. But we hit a snag. Our insurance will not pay for the treatment and the hospital will not take us now since the insurance will not pay for it. The cost of the treatment is $100,000."

Pot, Meet Kettle

2008-09-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

After spending a few days watching the reactions of conservatives to the Palin pick for VP, it seems that a lot of them are looking at the Palin pick as a positive. A large number of them are even hopeful that Palin will change how things are done in DC.

Hmmm.....Hope and Change. I wonder where I've heard those feelings and politics linked before?

It's exceedingly ironic that the group of people who have labeled Obama the "Obamessiah", refered to Obama's speaking style as "pastoral", and criticized the emotional investment of Obama supporters in their candidate (including derogatory nicknames such as "Obamorons") have now discovered their Patron Saint of Conservatism. It also makes that same group of people a bunch of "it's okay for me to do it, but not anyone else" hypocrites.

That's Quite an Endorsement!

2008-08-28T04:42:00.001-07:00

"Former President Clinton gave his full-throated endorsement to Barack Obama's bid for the White House on Wednesday, telling delegates to the Democratic convention that Obama is "ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world." (Source)

"Full-throated endorsement"?

Oh my.

Morning Links

2008-08-26T04:15:00.000-07:00

A recent study has shown that the number of people killed in auto accidents will drop sharply in comparison to last year. The cause? Lower gas prices.

One of the best stories from the Beijing Games didn't get a lot of press. Check out what happened to Angelo Taylor.

FYI to parents: You won't get to pre-board on airplanes anymore unless you request it.

Memo to Canadians: Don't cross the U.S. border illegally even if you get knocked unconscious and almost drown. You'll get arrested.

It Wasn't A "Hiatus", It Was A "Vacation"

2008-08-24T17:25:00.001-07:00

Sorry about not posting for 17 days (for anyone who reads this blog at this point). That's what happens when you go on vacation for a week with your wife and two kids under the age of 4 and you do your best to recover after coming home.

I've been under a hell of a time crunch and it doesn't appear that it will be letting up anytime soon. It's difficult for me to find time to blog at this point, so sitting down at the felt (virtual or physical) has also been difficult to do. I will say that I managed to play in the Donkament on Friday (where I finished seventh thanks to being too aggressive, but I'm overall happy with the result since I haven't played much recently) and it was wicked awesome to sit down and gab with a bunch of people while throwing around some virtual chips. That's something I've missed for a long time (thanks a lot, BBT3). I might be late to the party on that front because I haven't been able to play many blogger MTTs in the past few months, but it's definitely a nice change.

As I mentioned before, I've been away on vacation. My wife's cousin (who's diapers she changed when he was a baby, so this was quite a momentous occasion for her) got married on the 16th of August. We had to pack up both kids into the car for a two day, nine hour trek up to New York to my wife's mother's house. That means that this trip was less "vacation" and more "put out the fires when they light and survive" for the parental units of the family (i.e. yours truly and my wife).

On one hand, that sounds worse than it actually was. On the other, we had to drive with the kids in the car for long stretches when they didn't want to be in the car and deal with a split-level house that contained a switchback staircase in the middle of it (which only had one wall, that had a rail on it, on the upper section of the staircase). I'll point out here that due to the style of staircase, no baby gate can block off any part of it. So, we either had to limit my one year old son to two rooms in the whole house (by closing doors) or someone had to follow him around the whole time he was roaming the house to make sure that he didn't have an accident on the stairs.

Sounds nice and relaxing, doesn't it?

Add in family members who continually made negative comments about my daughter, the kids having issues due to a broken sleep schedule, bickering between relatives, general "no, that's not allowed" discussions with the kids, and trying to figure out where we could stop to eat (due to an intolerance to dairy and wheat that my daughter deals with) and you can see why I need a vacation from my vacation.

However, my kids did really well at the wedding ceremony (my son ran around on the grass away from the ceremony and my daughter sat and quietly played with my wife), I took my daughter on her first horse and carriage ride, we were able to see friends we haven't seen in awhile (and our kids were able to play together), the kids had fun playing at various playgrounds, and my wife was able to spend some quality time with her family.

I can't say "the trip was great", but I can say that "the trip was okay". It could have been A LOT worse, but the negatives balanced out the positives to give me a "meh" feeling now that we're home and back on a quasi-normal schedule instead of me grumbling about the whole thing or reaching for a large quantity of alcohol upon oue arrival at home.

The kids were able to play out in the backyard today, we had friends visit this weekend, and I'm doing my best to get back into the swing of things at work. The latter will take some time (due to connecting all the dots and getting caught up), but that shouldn't be a big problem barring any surprises that crop up this week.

I'm hoping to play in either the Mookie or the Riverchasers this week. I'll see what I can do. Lastly, I'll note that when I came back from vacation and looked at my RSS feeds, I discovered 2,242 unread entries.

So, what have I missed?

So Much For Storming the Castle

2008-08-07T16:09:00.000-07:00

Excalibur informed dealers that they will close their poker room on Aug. 18, then reopen Aug. 21 with all e-tables. Floor staff will be kept to a minimum, and obviously -- no dealers.

R.I.P., Excalibur. We remember you fondly when you were in the sportsbook area, we could get a free hotdog buffet in late afternoons, and we could spin the wheel.

Hat tip: LasVegasVegas.