So long, Sydney

Sydney has been great. Pauly and I got to experience two great barbeques and met a lot of really cool people. My favorite thing about this great country is the people that I've met. Everyone is very friendly and very interested in what you're saying. They also really like beer and meat and partying, three of my favorite pastimes. The city itself is really gorgeous and unlike anywhere else in the world. The harbor is great and there are some remarkable buildings down here that make for a beautiful skyline. I don't think the metro system is very good but the city, despite being quite hilly, is easily navigated on foot. One of the best things about both Melbourne and Sydney, the two biggest cities in Australia, is that they have a clean, compact downtown area and it's really easy to wander around without plans. Everyone knows how much I hate plans.

Tomorrow I say goodbye to Pauly who has been my travel partner over the last 8 days. We also spent a lot of time together at the casino in Melbourne. I like traveling solo but I like having a great travel partner even more. Pauly and I work well together because we're both relaxed guys who are up for anything. I like flying by the seat of my pants and Pauly doesn't mind doing the same. We've had a good time together down here and I'll be sad to part ways. *sniff* I'm fly to Alice Springs in the morning to see Uluru, formerly Ayers Rock. I'll be there until Thursday when I fly to Melbourne in preparation for the Great Ocean Road, a drive that I'll be doing over the weekend with the lovely and talented Cory-Ann. The next week will be spectacular and I hope to have a lot of pictures.

It was also a lot of fun being here during the Australian Open. I was in France in 2000 during the Tour de France and the Euro Cup and it's really fun to see a whole country consumed by sports. Federer just won the men's side, barely squeaking out a 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Fernando Gonzalez. Gonzalez played out of his mind and Federer still won in straight sets. We went to the bar the night of the Roddick match, hoping to see some tough tennis and Roger just ruined it for us. He is so unbelievable to watch and I can't get enough. I wish that I could watch Jordan again and Federer has the same sort of aura. The man just refuses to lose.

Here are some pictures from the past few days. 100 cool points to the person who can name the type of flower in the first picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gaff

I just spent 15 minutes trying to type up something about last night but nothing will beat Pauly's post. Go here for the details.

It's Australia Day and we're ready to party. I will be partying sans condom despite Dookie's excellent advice. I can't wait to see what Pauly writes about tomorrow so that I can steal it instead of writing something myself.

Speaking of stealing because of laziness, Scott finally has all his India posts up so head over there if you have the time.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oy, Oy, Oy. Happy Australia Day.

Sydney

Pauly and I got to Sydney this morning at 7 AM. THe overnight train was pretty brutal and neither of us slept very well. The train was a lot worse than the ones in Europe or Japan and about on par with the train that I took in India. Given the option again I think I'd rather fly from the Gold Coast to Sydney. Live and learn.

We got to our hostel around 8 AM but it was too early to check in. We dropped off our bags and went to an Internet cafe. After about 30 minutes I had a wicked deuce brewing so I got up to look for the bathroom. The Internet cafe didn't have a bathroom so I had to scurry across the street before it was too late. I burst into an office building and walked quickly to the back corner where the bathroom was located. There was one guy in front of me and with two urinals and only one stall he took the stall to take his piss! I had to sit there clenching my cheeks while Mr. Deuchebag had the stall locked up. For a second I thought that I would have to use the urinal but he finished just in time and I shot him a dirty look before slamming the stall door and wrecking the toilet.

That was the exciting part of the day. We also hit Bondi Beach in the early afternoon and it reminded me of a miniature Nice with more surfing. Pauly and I walked the beach and got to see one nice pair of boobies flapping in the wind. Sydney is a pretty cool city. It kind of reminds me of Seattle because it has a compact downtown core with cool neighborhoods sprawling out in every direction. At first I thought it was like New York but I've changed my opinion after seeing the outer nieghborhoods.

I got a haircut and now look very sexy. Pauly's roommate in the hostel works at a bar and he told us tonight is ladies night AND that he'd hook us up with free drinks. Sold and sold. There's a chance that I hit on some women tonight but there's a better chance that I get really drunk and sloppy. I will have a full report tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Australia Day and I can't wait. Pauly has a friend here in Sydney and she's throwing a party from 3:30-late. She has advised us to bring a toothbrush and a change of clothes so it might be a pretty good time. I'm probably going to stay in Sydney for one more day, after Australia Day, before flying to Adelaide to catch the train to Alice Springs.

Picture Dump

Here are some pics randomly posted without rhyme or reason. Hopefully this helps you understand better why I'm having so much fun down here. Tomorrow, Pauly and I are catching a late train to Sydney while Schecky is flies back to Melbourne. I'm gonna miss the Scheck but Sydney will be great. Next post will probably come from there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Backstage

The Big Day Out was sold out but Shecky knows Tool's ex-manager and got us hooked up with backstage passes. I was less than 20 feet away from Jet and Muse during their entire sets and the feeling was indescribable. Muse was unreal but I think I enjoyed Jet more. The thing that I love about music is the memories that certain bands can evoke. Standing on the stage with Jet flooded me with memories of giving Renee shit about buying me Strokes tickets instead of Jet and giving Renee shit in general, my road trip to Spring Training and Vegas with my boy Davis and really reminds me of my fraternity days in general. Muse was the better show but Jet really got me going. Anyway, Pauly, being the professional blogger that he is, has already created a short video on YouTube:



The whole time I felt like the kid in Almost Famous. We were backstage before The Killers went on stage and saw the band huddling up, getting pumped to perform in from of 100,000 people. The lead singer was doing some vocal exercises and bouncing around like Tigger. Jet was drinking Becks then went into a sort of huddle and sang a tribute to Elton John before taking the stage. I mentioned to Pauly that all we were missing was Penny Lane and all of a sudden she was there. I think Kate Hudson is dating the lead singer of Jet and she stood next to us for part of Jet and all of Muse. Backstage at The Big Day Out with Penny Lane. Unreal.

We rented a car yesterday and I stepped up to do the driving on the wrong side of the road. It took a lot of concentration but I think I got the hang of it toward the end of the night. My biggest fear is making a right turn into the wrong lane but it shouldn't happen as long as I stay focused. Yesterday was definitely a success despite going mirror-to-mirror with a parked car the first time I drove. Today we are driving down to Byron Bay and I should be alright on the freeways. I'll check in once I get to our hotel so that you know I didn't swerve into the Pacific Ocean.

Don't forget to check out Pauly's blog for better recaps of the trip.

Big Day Out

I'm in the Gold Coast of Australia, in a town called Surfer's Paradise, with Dr. Pauly and John "Shecky" Caldwell. We flew in from Melbourne this afternoon and tomorrow will be attending the Gold Coast's Big Day Out. The concert is headlined by Tool and I'm excited to see Jet, The Killers, Muse, The Streets and various unknown Aussie bands. Pauly's passions are writing and music and writing about music so I'll be attending the concert with a real pro. He also runs two great blogs so keep checking over there if you want to read about what we're doing from a better writer that yours truly.

I had reservations at a hostel here in the Gold Coast but Shecky isn't down with hostels so he planned on finding a hotel room for himself. However, due to the Big Day Out and summer tourism, every single hotel was booked solid and Shecky almost missed the trip. Luckily, on the night before flying out here, Shecky had dinner with some powerful friends. One of these friends has an American Express Titanium Card, the baller version of the Black Card. Each Titanium Card comes with a personal assistant, hired by AmEx, who sits around waiting to help you with things. Shecky's friend called his personal assistant and said, "find a hotel in the Gold Coast for tomorrow night". The end result is the three of us sharing a room at the Palazzo Versace, one of the "World's Top Hotels". The Hermitage in Monte Carlo is the only other hotel I've ever stayed at that is on that Top Hotels list. The craziest part is that Shecky's friend is footing the bill for two nights and that can't be cheap. I'll try to take pictures of this place but it reminds me of the Hermitage. It's really nice but has a kind of classic look. I liked the hotel in Melbourne a lot because it was beautiful and felt really new. It's kind of like the difference between an old Bentley and a BMW M6. Both are really sick but I think I'd take the newer car. Anyway, Bentleys are still damn cool and I like this hotel.

The day after the concert we're driving down to Byron Bay where we'll spend a few days before getting down to Sydney for Australia Day, Australia's version of the 4th of July(kinda), on January 26th. I hope to have some pictures up soon but I wouldn't have my hopes too high if I were a reader of this blog.

BTW, Gobbo came in 2nd in the Aussie Millions and won $1 Million Australian Dollars. He's a real nice kid and I'm really happy for him. My friend, Shane, took a sick beat from Gobbo to go out in 20th place and has a great report up here. I like the post a lot and really wish that I could write as well as Shane.

It's 2 AM and time for bed but both Pauly and Shecky are sawing logs pretty hard. I'm not a bad snorer myself so I'll try to get my revenge tomorrow night.

Goooooooo Gobbo

My friend Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke made the final table of the Aussie Millions. There are 7 left and the winner will take home 1.5 million dollars(Australian). Gobbo has the chip lead and looks like he could win it. Gus Hansen is second in chips, Andrew Black is 3rd and Kristi Gazes is somewhere between 4 and 7. Gobbo is a really nice kid and it would be awesome if he won this puppy. He has run pretty hot at the right times but you always need a lot of luck if you're going to beat these big fields. Anyway, play starts in an hour and I'll be downstairs rooting him on. I think the best place to check for updates is PokerNews.

Carl, Nordberg and I went to the Australian Open yesterday and had a blast. We watched Nalbandian, Grosjean and Haas advance and although I promised to stop prop betting, I couldn't help myself. I lost $400 on the Grosjean match but the 5th set was one of the coolest experiences of my life. My horse was this diminutive German guy who made loud grunts even when hitting a slice but he hung in there and almost pulled out the victory. Nordberg felt bad and basically gave money away during the Haas match and I won all my money back, including the Hewitt debacle from the day before. I am now up $100 from tennis prop betting and this time I really am going to quit. Seriously.

It's incredibly cool staying at the same hotel as the tennis players. Andy Roddick was in the poker room a few days before the Open started and I've seen Maria Sharapova and Martina Hingis in the lobby multiple times. Sharapova is really tall and really beautiful and I think I have a bit of a crush on her.

Tonight is the Aussie Millions Players Party and everyone says that it's a lot of fun. Tomorrow I fly up to Brisbane with Pauly and John Caldwell and say goodbye to this beautiful city. I had a great time and I'm going to try really hard to come back next year. The tournament was great and the venue was beyond superlatives. It helps that I'm up about $A4,000 in 8 hours of $5/10 action but I think I'd be stoked even if I was stuck. Tomorrow I get to leave the crazy poker world and enjoy my true addiction: travel. I hope I can find wireless along the way to post updates but if not, I hope you're all loving life as much as I am. Peace.

I love play pokah

I busted from the Main Event yesterday and was upset for about 10 minutes. Once I finished my first beer on the rail I started to get excited to see more of Melbourne and hang out with my friends while they're down here. Nordberg and Carl were already drinking and Michael, a Melbourne native, decided to join the fun. After a few beers at the Casino, we decided to take a cab to St. Kilda, a popular Melbourne beach area. We ate some pizza then made our way down to the water. It was pretty nice but there were tons of flies and there's nothing more annoying than having to incessantly swat flies. We drank some more at a bar on the beach then headed back to the Casino after it got dark. Carl and I had some booze in our room so the four of us headed upstairs to drink and watch tennis. It's pretty cool that the Australian Open is going on at the same time as the poker tournament. Carl and I are going to see a match tomorrow but we aren't sure who we'll see. He qualified for the tournament on Mansion Poker and they're getting tickets for him. It seems like they're doing a great job of taking care of their qualifiers. Anyway, the Leyton Hewitt match was on and he was down 2 sets to none so I bet Michael $100 that the American would beat him. I had to give him 4-1 odds but I felt good. Obviously, Leyton came back to win and I lost $A400. No more tennis betting for me. I think I gave him too good of a price: once Leyton picked up one set, I knew the match was over because the crowd got behind him and the momentum was unstoppable.

After finishing a fifth of Maker's Mark, a bottle of wine and a few James Boag beers, we headed downstairs to eat before playing poker. Nordberg, Michael and I finished eating and headed down to the poker room. Carl was supposed to come down and meet us but I think he was too drunk so he headed back to the room. I sat at a good $5/10 game and won $A2500 in about 2 hours. I got up to the room around 4:30 AM and Carl was passed out with the lights on and TV blaring. It's taking us a while to get going this morning but I'd like to play some more 5/10 and try to pay for my trip down here.

I uploaded some pictures from India to a Google program called Picassa. Enjoy:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/brandon.schaefer


http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/brandon.schaefer

Bleh

I had 58K at the dinner break and ended the day with 38K. I was at a tough table and found myself down to 45K when I tried to make a move and ended up spewing 17K in chips. I stole on each of the last 4 hands of the day to get back up to 38K. This structure is pretty sick and we start at 500/1000 tomorrow so I still have a bit of room. It's pretty disappointing to have nearly 60K with 3 hours left and go backwards. We start tomorrow at 12:30 PM, check pokernews.com for updates. I've been up since 5 AM and it's time for bed. Love, Brandon.

GG Seahawks

I should have known when I woke up at 5 AM and it was the first cloudy morning in Melbourne. I should have known when Rex converted that miraculous 3rd and 10 on the opening drive. I should have known when the Seahawks couldn't convert ONE single 3rd-and-short all game. I should have known when Robbie Gould lined up from 49 yards out. But I didn't. I really, really, really REALLY thought that the Seahawks were going to pull it off this morning(or yesterday afternoon, depending on where you are) but alas it wasn't to be. There's no doubt that the Bears are a better team but I couldn't ask for anything more. Give Matt the ball with 4 minutes left in regulation in a tie game and I'm a happy camper. Oh well.

I start the Aussie Millions main event today and I'm uber-excited. The structure looks good, we start with 20,000 chips and the field is uber-soft. The bet place for updates is PokerNews where Dr. Pauly and a slew of others are providing live updates. I've gotten drunk with many of the PokerNews crew so I think they'll have updates on my stack periodically. Day 1A was yesterday and my boy Jimmy "gobboboy" Fricke is among the chipleaders with 139,100 chips. My hero, Patrik Antonius, is the chipleader with an obscene 315,400 chips. He is just ridiculous.

I'm starting to hammer out my Australia plans post-tourney and I'm getting excited to see the rest of this amazing continent. Scott, who is infinitely less lazy that I am, has some posts up about India. Check it out for some sweet pics and commentary. I hope to check in tonight with at least 100,000 chips.

Peace.

<3 Australia

Melbourne is a pretty sweet city. Carl and I have gone on a few city walks and I like it a lot. The British know how to erect impressive architecture and downtown Melbourne is filled with interesting buildings. The women here are also magnificent to look at and Carl and I are constantly shaking our heads at the amount of ridiculously hot women roam the streets of Melbourne. I know these statements would be better with pictures but I've been forgetting to carry my camera. I'll get some pics up eventually.

The $A1650 tournament was pretty fun. I came in 47th with 48 getting paid and I feel good about my play in all but one hand. I don't feel like talking about my botched hand but I'll talk about the hands where I won $A2,000. The tournament had 40 or 50 "bounty" players and if you knocked one of them out of the tournament then you won $A1000. I had one of these players directly on my right with blinds at 100/200. He started the hand with about 8000 chips and I had about 9000. He raised on the button to 550 and I looked sown at black Kings in the SB. I reraised to 1700 and he called. The flop came down 844 and I led for 2100. He moved in instantly for about 6000 total and I called almost as quickly. He tabled J6o and my KK held. He was on tilt a bit and decided that he was going to outplay me postflop. The floorman came over and handed me 10 $A100 bills and all of a sudden the tourney only cost me $A650. The next hand occured at a different table with blinds at 300/600. Someone limped in early position, the bounty limped, and the small blind completed. I looked down at Ks7s in the BB and checked my option. The flop came out Js8s3d the SB checked and I bet 1500 into the 2400 chip pot. The first limper folded then the bounty moved all-in for 3200 more. I had a trivially easy call with my spade draw and was delighted to see him turn over 6s4s for a smaller spade draw. The board blanked out and again the floorman came to pay me $A1000 in cash. Now I was on a total freeroll and already profited $A350. I was happiest with my play from 100 down to the bubble. I started the 600/1200 level with 13000 chips and worked my way up to 50K without seeing a flop. I had a pro, Ben Roberts, on my right who tried to steal my blind every single round and I restole on him about 50% of the time. In my ultimate hand, with blinds at 1K/2K and a stack of 42K, I raised from middle position to 6K with JJ. Everyone folded to the big stack who had about 130K and he reraised to 15K total. I felt sick because it just reeked of a big hand but I'm not the guy who folds JJ with 20 BBs. Also, there were only 4 minutes left in the 1K/2K level before blinds would go up to 1500/3000. I think it's a clear shove but obviously the big stack had AA and the door card was another Ace. 47th paid $A2000 so I ended up profiting $A2350 for the tourney. It was a nice way to start the trip and I hope I can keep it up. The cash games look fantastic but I haven't sat down yet. Tomorrow I think I'm going to put in a decent session and try to win my $A10K buy-in for the main event.

That's the news from Melbourne. I'll try to bring a camera with me the next time I go out.

Brandon

Q: What has two thumbs and has been to all seven continents?

A: This guy:

 

It's really great to be in Melbourne. I arrived this morning around 10:30 AM and ran into John Caldwell at the airport. We shared a cab back to the Casino and I found my way up to the room that Mansion Poker booked for Carl. The Crown Towers is probably the nicest hotel that I've ever seen. The Hermitage in Monte Carlo was great for many reasons but the rooms just can't compare to the room that Carl and I are in right now. I have 10 days in the lap of luxury before heading out to Brisbane to live as a poor backpacker again. The games down here look great and are probably pretty profitable despite the suffocating rake. I'll probably play in the A$1500 tourney tomorrow and hopefully will have some good news to report. Carl and I went for a walk today and it was nice to get some sun. The poker room is downstairs from the main casino and, while it's nice, it's easy to get stuck down there and lose track of time. I'm going to make it a goal to leave this place at least once every day. Sounds like an easy task but people often spend every minute on-site since the hotel and casino are in the same building.

I still haven't seen Pauly and I'm not too pleased about it. He's probably coming with me to Brisbane and will be backpacking down the Gold Coast with me so we'll have plenty of time to throw back some beers down under. Anyway, just wanted to check in. Peace.

God Bless the 1st World

Singapore is one of the cleanest big cities that I've ever seen, right up there with Tokyo. The skyline is beautiful and the nightlife is pretty good. It's really nice to be able to come somewhere so clean directly from possibly the dirtiest country in the world. India was awesome but my goodness was there a lot of filth. I planned on updating periodically from India but the internet cafes were slow as molasses and I didn't feel like putting up one-liners like, "I'm in Mumbai, it's hot." I'm working on a full write-up but I probably won't get it up until I can find wireless Internet so that I can upload some pictures at the same time.

One thing that really is starting to irk me is the whirlwind nature with which I'm traveling. In the hostel last night I hung out with a couple from Australia who have been traveling for 6 months and are planning on another year. They have already spent a month in each of Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand as well as planning on six months in India. I just tried to cover India in 2 weeks and I have 3 weeks TOTAL for Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand including a mere 2 DAYS in Cambodia to see Ankor Wat. I'm starting to wish that I had scheduled fewer countries and explored them more in depth rather than postcard-trippin' all over Asia. I keep telling myself that I'll be able to use this time as knowledge building, so that when I want to take another long trip I'll know where I want to spend more time. I think it's a bunch of crap but I'm good at lying to myself.

Anyway, I don't think I posted a Happy New Year greeting yet so, HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2006 was pretty damn awesome, even if I didn't win as much money as in 2005. I went to Antarctica, I went to all 30 MLB stadiums, I saw a no-hitter, I lived in Vegas for over a month and made some great friends and I didn't go busto. If 2007 can be as active, I'll be quite pleased. I already have the Vegas trip planned again and I have a bunch of travel planned from now through July. Supposedly there's a calendar on Google that I'll try to start using. I'll have it linked to the blog so that you crazy stalkers can keep tabs on me.

I fly to Australia late tomorrow night and don't arrive until around 10 or 11 AM(Australia time) on the morning of the 10th. I believe that Australia is 19 hours ahead of Seattle. 19 hours! The India recap will probably come from the hotel at the Casino in Melbourne. I'm staying with Carl because he won a seat and a hotel room and is again letting me mooch. One day I'll figure out how to pay him back for all the love. Peace.

Namaste!

Well, I made it safely and India is insane. I don't have time for a long post but I just want to check in and tell everyone that I am safe. Yesterday we went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and a few other sites. It was pretty fantastic and words can't really describe the experience. I'm a little frazzled because I got to our hotel around 12:30 AM, our train left for Agra at 6 AM and we didn't get back to Delhi until 11:15 PM. I slept well last night and I'm ready for some heavy Delhi sight-seeing today. We are taking a train to Varanasi tonight at 8:45 and we don't get to our destination until 8 AM. Overnight trains are awesome. Eventually, I'll be able to sit down and crank out a better post with some pictures. Until then, close your eyes and picture me rollin'.

The Worst

The worst part about travel is getting there. GET THERE ONE TIME!!! I'm in Taiwan with a 10-hour layover in-between a 13.5 hour flight and a 7 hour flight. The flight from Seattle to Taiwan was grueling to say the least but I slept for at least 6 hours so it could have been worse. I also watched Superman and My Super Ex-Girlfriend on the plane. Both were pretty bad but still managed to be entertaining.

I got into Taiwan at around 6:30 AM local time and wandered around for a while, wondering if I would have to sit here for 9 hours or if I could leave for a while and see the sights. My questions were answered by a bright green billboard that advertised a free half-day tour put on by the Taiwanese Board of Tourism. The tour left at 8:15 AM so I twiddled my thumbs for almost two hours before a man that looked a lot like Chau Giang picked us up in his bus. The tour was pretty short, to the towns of Sanshia and Yingge, aka pottery heaven, and it felt very commercialized. I don't know what I expected since the tour was put on by the tourism board but I was hoping to see a bit more of the real countryside. The pottery was really nice in Yingge but the atmosphere was too touristy. I'm such a travel snob. The tour was probably 50 times better than spending the time cooped up in the airport and it was free so I can't really complain too much. I'll give one guaranteed postcard to the first person who can correctly tell me what "Sanshia" means. If you look it up, you are a jerk. Hint: Pittsburgh.

Anyway, it's 1 PM here at the airport and I have 3 and a half hours to kill before my final flight. India is 13.5 hours ahead of Seattle(what's up with the 30-minute change?) and I'm not really looking forward to the first few days of jetlag. We're going to Agra tomorrow to see the Taj Mahal and I hope I don't become too much of a drag on Scott, Ivan and Brianna.

I've already realized that I forgot a few things but none of them are catastrophic. Hopefully I'll be able to get online in Delhi but if not, dream about me bombing on lots of Indian food.

Mele Kalikimaka

Merry Christmas, y'all.

You know what's crazy? My plane leaves for India(well, for Taiwan, on my way to India) in less than 23 hours!!! I've been getting more and more nervous as the date has drawn nearer and nearer and it's killing me. I'm not sleeping well, I dream about getting kidnapped in Cambodia and I wonder if I'll have any money left to my name once this trip is done. I think the major problem is that I'm not the best planner in the world so I always think that I'm forgetting something important. Usually I am forgetting something important and even if I remember what it is, I procrastinate until it's too late. My Neteller account was locked a while ago and I've been trying in vain to get it unlocked. I had to call a number of different times before I got through to the investigations department but they needed me to email some info and then call back. I'm not really good at the "call back" thing and I put it off until the last day, when I called them after operating hours. Now, if I run out of money, I won't be able to drain all my poker accounts for Thai Hookers and Cambodian Blow. I have a bit of a cushion but it's not really a ton of money and I still need to pay for most of my hotel/hostel rooms and food and WHAT IF I RUN OUT OF MONEY, OMGOMGOMG!!!!!

It's so weird because I'm usually the most unflappable guy that I know. Nothing ever gets to me and I've gone on long trips before. The weirdest part is that I'm better prepared for this trip than any trip I've done in the past. When I went to Germany for the World Cup, I booked my hostels the night before staying there, sometimes the day of, and didn't worry at all. In Australia, I have about half of my hotels/hostels already booked and planned out but I'm still nervous that I'm going to get stranded in the desert and eaten by wild kangaroos. Aaaaaanyway, I just thought I'd let you all know that I'm turning into a worrywart. It'll do me good in the long run to add a little more stress to my life.

The Seahawks managed, in losing, to provide me with a glimmer of hope today. The offensive line still get manhandled way too often and I'm pretty sure this isn't a SUPER team but if Hasselbeck can consistently play like he did in the 3rd quarter and the defense can build some confidence(and Boulware figures out how to keep receivers from getting behind him WITH 29 SECONDS LEFT UP BY 4 FROM THE 30WHATEVER YARD LINE GETBACKHE'SRUNNINGAFLYGETBACKOMGDON'TLETHIMGETBEHINDYOU
HOLYCRAPAREYOUKIDDINGMEWHYWHYWHYWHYWHWYWHWYWHWHYWHWYWYW
AEYFIOWF#Q)HE{GU$F)@#YT+{GUOQEBFVJDBGIPFYG&!r_2793[U) then I think the Seahawks can win fairly easily in the first round, setting up a rematch with the Bears. The first time we played wasn't very fun but if ol' Rexy-Pooh can lay a fat egg, maybe the Hawks can steal a win. Then, if the wildcard team that we don't beat in the first round can beat Dallas and the Saints, we can play the NFC Championship back at home and WE'RE GOING TO MIAMI!!!!

That's all I wanted to post for now. It's going to take a long time to get to India and once I'm there lord knows how often I'll get to use the net but I'll try to post as many updates and pictures as I can. Merry Christmas and I hope you have as awesome a New Years as I'm going to have. I'm going to be in Mumbai(Bombay), where are you going to be? Muahahahahahahaha.

Cliff Dad

I'm coming home from Pasco tonight and I have 3 free nights in Seattle before taking off forever. Saturday night I will be in Vancouver visiting my grandmother, Sunday night I will be at the Seahawks-Chargers game where I get to completely write the MFers off or just when I thought I was out, they reel me back in. I'll be in Federal Way for Christmas on Monday and then finally I fly to India at 12:15 AM on December 26th. I really can't believe that I'm leaving for this trip already and I'm starting to worry about my preparedness. I rarely worry but I've never been on the road for 10 weeks and the unknown is always a little scary. I'm a big boy and I think I can handle it.

Pasco was uneventful, although I did see two animals peeing in the woods:

If you want more pictures from Pasco, send me an email. These pics are among the very few that I don't post on the Internet.

Tomorrow I am going to the UW-LSU basketball game. Dookie bought me tickets for Christmas and I can't wait to see how the Huskies match up against Big Baby and the rest of the 12th-ranked Tigers. The Huskies got killed in their only tough game, at Gaonzaga, but this one's at home and I hope they play better. After the game, I'll probably be heading to Die Bier Stube with Cliff so if that sounds like fun to you, give me a call.

Since I'm in a basketball mood, here are some sweet videos:

Charles Barkley

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Shawn Kemp "The Reignman"

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Partay!!!

Cliff got in tonight and I ate dinner with him at the Gyrocery. Pops is also in town and I hung out with him for a few hours in the afternoon. We spent about an hour trying to prove that in poker, with random cards against two opponents you win 33% of the time. He started the argument off by stating that against two opponents your probability of winning was .5 against one player and .5 against the other player so your probability of having the best hand is .5*.5=.25. Now, obviously the correct answer is .33 but I couldn't figure out a mathematical way to prove that. If there are any math gurus in the audience, I'd really appreciate your help. Yeah, my dad's a nerd.

Christmas is about family but it's also about DRINKING! This weekend I had two birthday parties to attend and managed to get rip-roaring drunk at both. Friday night was my friend Ravi's birthday and he celebrated it downtown at the J&M Cafe. I hate all clubs and I probably hate the J&M more than most but the night was a lot of fun because of the people that were there. Ravi is a friend from baaaack in the day. From 13 to 16 I'd hang out at the park across the street every single day. We didn't have a huge group but those that hung out became pretty tight. For some reason most of us went our separate ways once college started but the days of hanging out at Dahl Field contain some of my fondest memories. Anyway, Ravi's birthday was kind of a Dahl Field reunion and I hung out with some friends that I hadn't seen in six or seven years. Holy crap I'm old.

Everyone was excited to be back together but the main draw was Anyiam, the guy farthest to the right wearing the leather jacket. He had really fallen off the map and some of us were wondering if he was still alive. Somehow, Kenny found his old number and tracked the guy down. I picked him up around 9:00 and we went to pick up Kenny and his friend Sidney. Obviously, I cranked cheesy music and serenaded Anyiam for the whole ride to the bar, that's just what I do. There's nothing better than serenading a friend to some old school Britney. Anyway, as we got closer to the bar I promised Anyiam that I would check him into the "Blackedout Hotel", a term I use when I plan on buying someone enough drinks for them to black out. Anyiam trying to resist but at one point started talking shit back to me and I knew his fate was sealed. We were in a Mexican mood and I kept buying rounds of Patron and Coronas. After the 3rd or 4th round of drinks I came over to Anyiam, handed him his beer and put my arm around his shoulders. He turned to me and said, very seriously, "I'm gonna kick your ass." I started laughing hysterically and when I calmed down he said again, "seriously, I'm gonna kick your ass." WTF? I asked him what his problem was and he said, "I don't do that gay shit. I think it's ok that you're gay but I'm not down with you hitting on me." I was a little shocked to say the least but I had already booked a room for him at the Blackedout Hotel so I continued to buy him drinks for the rest of the night. Obviously, each drink came with the obligatory, "we're both sleeping at Kenny's tonight, Anyiam. I can't wait to cuddle" comments. The funniest moment of the night was toward closing time when I was talking to one of Ravi's friends and Anyiam came up behind her, with glazed ass eyes, and started to grind the shit out of her. She stepped to the side and Anyiam almost fell flat on his face before stumbling into a chair on the edge of the dance floor. We left my car downtown and the whole taxi ride I egged Anyiam on, telling him that we'd be cuddling soon. He responded with a mixture of barely-decipherable curse words and I'm gonna kick your asses. We finally got to Kenny's place and I got on the couch while Kenny put Anyiam on the futon. I promised Anyiam that once the lights were out, I'd climb onto the futon with him, agitating him to the very end. As soon as Kenny turned out the lights, I heard Anyiam puke twice and I knew that the night had been a success. God bless America.

The next morning I had a wicked hangover but had to get back downtown before my car got a ticket. Anyiam was still passed out on the futon, with his face buried in his own stomach acid. It was a glorious sight. That night was Dave's sexy santa birthday/Christmas party. There were some hot girls at this party...

Tasha, with the pink gloves, is Dave's wife and she got all these girls to dress slutty. God bless Tasha. Obviously, none of us talked to the girls, we just played Wii and various drinking games. Dave was nice enough to buy three OE 40s so Davis, CL and I took full advantage and ended up getting pretty smashed. Dave and Tasha have a really nice house in Auburn and I was nice enough to knock a full glass of red wine off the 2nd floor and onto their white carpet. I felt like crap but they were really cool about it(drunkenness may have played a part in their calmness) and Tasha ran around in her bare feet trying to pick up shards of glass. I made her bring me the steam vacuum and I spent about 30 minutes trying to get the wine out of the carpet. Tasha kept yelling at me to stop cleaning and have fun but I couldn't have fun with all that red wine in the carpet. Finally, it got close to clean and Tasha pulled the plug on my vacuuming. I'm not sure if the pounding of Tuaca straight from the bottle came before or after the red wine incident but the whole night became kind of a blur. Needless to say, Tasha and Dave threw a great party and I hope the carpet is clean enough for them to make it an annual tradition. Tasha made a ham and some potatoes and bomb appetizers and Dave decorated the house in a way that Clark Grizwold would have been proud of. The best decoration is a paper-mache mountain in his front yard with santa in a train that goes in a circle through the mountain. It's hard to describe but I'll try to take a picture of it next time I head down there. Anyway, please have this party again next year, Dook, and happy birthday.

Today I just relaxed and tried to clear my head. This week will be nice and sober but I think the debauchery will kick up again next weekend. I can't wait.

Bliggity Bloggity, Bloggity Bloogity

Alright.

I'm going to start blogging more regularly. I'm going to start blogging more regularly. I'm going to start blogging more regularly. I'm going to start blogging more regularly. I'm going to start blogging more regularly. I'm going to start blogging more regularly.

Seriously.

I'm really excited for the holidays this year. I haven't seen my brother in about 5 months and the last time I saw him was in Vegas, right before the main event. He was there for exactly ONE night and it was right before my Day 2 so I had to head home after eating dinner. I ended up finding him, Danny and Carl passed out in their swimsuits on the couch at 11 AM. That's the last time I've seen my brother and that's too damn long. He gets home on Sunday and I can't wait to see him.

I was supposed to fly to Oakland tonight to help my dad drive up the coast. We had plans to study a Schaum's outline on probability and I was actually into the idea. Tonight, Seattle was hit by a really bad storm so I decided to play it safe and canceled my flight. I now have $109 in credit on Southwest Airlines. Pops is going to make the drive on his own and should be here on Sunday night, the same day that Cliff gets to town. Joy of joys.

I'm really good at the "enjoying family time" part of the holidays but I'm pretty bad at the "gift buying" part. I've been shopping at Amazon.com and Costco.com but all I've managed to do is spend a lot of money on myself. I bought a ton of books on Amazon, mostly travel books for the upcoming trip, as well as all 5 seasons of Six Feet Under and the first 3 seasons of The Wire. I'm saving The Wire for my trip and I'll probably start watching Six Feet Under this weekend. I also bought a Canon Digital Rebel XT 8 megapixel SLR from Amazon for my trip. I'm going to look like a dumb ass tourist but if the shoe fits I'll wear it. I'm trying to learn how to take good photographs but it's hard with the horrible weather we've been having. Here's my favorite one so far. Yes, I'm aware it's a pretty wack picture. Screw you, photography snob.

I convinced my friend Jason to meet me in Australia and I'm really stoked to have him along. Jason is one of those guys that's down to party and while I've never been on vacation with him, I think we're going to have a great time. While planning for the trip, I found a ton of cool stuff that's going on down there. There's a huge concert series every year called The Big Day Out and the timing is perfect for my trip. The Aussie Millions tournament ends on January 20th and the first Australian leg is on the 21st. Artists include Tool, Jet, Muse, The Streets, The Killers, My Chemical Romance, The Vines and a buttload of bands that I've never heard of. Some of them are probably local Aussie bands and some might be known by people with more music savvy people. If there are any such people reading this blog, please take a few moments to look over the lineup and tell me if I should be excited about any of the smaller names on that list. I really like all the artists that I've heard of. I thought that My Chemical Romance was kinda wack ( We'll CAAAARRRRYYYY ON!!! We'll CAAAAAAAAARRRRRRYYYY OOOONNNN!!!!) but I saw them last week at Deck the Hall Ball and I thought they were really good live. Jet is kind of my white whale as far as bands go. After Jet's first popular CD came out I was really into them and I wanted to go to their concert. They were performing on the same day as The Strokes and for Valentines Day, Renee bought me 2 tickets to...THE STROKES CONCERT...even though she knew I was obsessed with Jet because she was more into the Strokes. That's kind of like me buying her Madden 2004 for Valentines Day and telling her, "let's draft a franchise together, it'll be awesome!" I guess it's not quite that bad because I liked the Strokes too and the concert was good but I missed out on Jet. THEN, last week at the Deck the Hall Ball, Jet was the third act so we pre-funked at Davis' house while the first two bands were on, then walked down to Key Arena. Our timing was a bit off because Davis and Duane had to scalp tickets and Renee and Torrie had to eat and we ended up walking into the Arena just as Jet was finishing up the last song of their set. Holy blueballs. I will not miss Jet at The Big Day Out and maybe the anticipation will make things that much sweeter. It'll be cool to see them in Australia, I just hope I stay sober enough to appreciate the experience.

Speaking of sobriety, or lack thereof, the blogging community just had their semi-annual Vegas get-together and I sadly had to miss the festivities. My liver is healthier without the 72 hours of alcohol but I missed out on one of the best trips of the year. Al has a short recap up and promises more later, Otis has something short and sweet, Pauly is pretty much the best writer in the history of the world, but I think Derek's recap was the most entertaining of all. I was already frustrated that I couldn't make it but reading about all the craziness that obviously went on makes me even more pissed off. Most of you reading my blog probably don't give a crap but I like these people so you have to deal with it.

In sports news, the Mariners are having an awful season. Read Cale's blog if you want more details. He does a great job breaking down why the team is so messed up and I'm not looking forward to next year...or the year after that...or the year after that...you get the point. We're getting worse AND getting older. GG Mariners. The Seahawks just lost at home to the Forty-freaking-Niners. After the loss at Arizona last weekend, I was frustrated with the team but I gave them the benefit of the doubt: Hasselbeck still wasn't at 100%, the Cardinals aren't terrible at home, etc, etc. I looked forward to the Chargers game next weekend and decided that the Christmas Eve game would be the ultimate measuring stick: if the Seahawks showed up I'd be optimistic for the playoffs. If the Chargers ran us over like they've been running over the other pretenders of the NFL then I'd admit that the Hawks just didn't have it this year. I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined that we might lose to the 49ers. Or the Forty-freaking-Niners. Unreal. The storm may have played a part in the sloppiness but I just don't think the Hawks have it this year. If they can bounce back and beat the Chargers I'll get all optimistic again but I think the problems run too deep in this team. The Hawks got stopped on a crucial 3rd-and-1 AND the subsequent 4th-and-one halfway through the 4th quarter. If you're a great team, that just can't happen. Ever. Anyway, Hawks win the division, probably win in the first round, then get beat in the Conference semis. Some teams would kill for that...not us. Obviously I hope I'm wrong but I just don't see it.

I bought tickets to Germany tonight, flying out of Seattle on March 17th and coming home on April 17th. Obviously I'll be staying with Cliff most of the time but I'm heading to Monte Carlo at the end of March for the tourney there and we're going to Paris on April 15th. Cliff will be running the Paris marathon and I will be getting tired thinking about it. He's going to try to run under 3:10 and qualify for the Boston marathon. Good luck, bro. Anyway, here's my updated schedule. I'm only posting this to piss you all off, obviously.

Now-December 26th: Seattle and vicinity for holidays.
December 27-January 7: India with Scott, Ivan and Bri.
January 7-9: Singapore
January 10-February 10: Australia for Aussie Millions, Big Day Out, Australia Day, etc.
February 11-17: Vietnam with Davis, Hao-Tam and CJ
February 18-19: Cambodia
February 20-March 5: Thailand. Full Moon Party on March 3rd.
March 5-March 17: Seattle
March 17-April 17: Germany, Monte Carlo, Paris.

I can't wait to get on the road. Seattle is the greatest place on earth but I'm trying to make sure.

P.S. I'm always bad at returning calls or emails but for some reason I've been even worse than usual lately. If you called me or emailed me and I never wrote back, please forgive me and call or write again and I promise to get back to you. I don't know why I just put things on the backburner until they boil over but I'm sorry. I still love you.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It's nice to sit back once in a while and think about all the things that we have to be thankful for. Personally, I feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world and I'm most thankful for my family, friends and loved ones. I've been surrounded by the greatest people that a guy could ask for and I consider myself really fortunate. I hope everyone out there has something to be thankful for and if you can't think of anything, think harder.

I'm in Canada right now, playing in the BC Poker Championships. I cashed in the Pot Limit event, barely, and the main event starts tomorrow. The players were unbelievably bad in the PLHE event and I expect the field to be pretty soft for the main event. The structure is pretty good and I'd be surprised if none of my friends(Carl, Ozzy, Smokey, Bushman) make the final table with me and eventually chop it with me heads-up. First prize is estimated to be around $700K and that would definitely make the trip worthwhile. If you don't like poker, skip this next part...some hands from the PLHE event:

Blinds 50/100, I raise to 250 in the hijack with 22 and the SB calls. I have about 3400 chips behind and he covers. The flop is K72 rainbow and he leads for 200. I raise to 700 and he quickly calls. The turn is an 8 putting two spades on board. He asks for a count of my chips, about 2600, then checks. I bet 1100 into the 2000 chip pot and he folds pretty quickly. I think I should have repeated the 700 chip bet.

Same blinds, I open Qh8h in the CO to 250. I have about 4400 chips behind and they both have similar stacks. The button and BB, same dude in the hand before, call. Flop is 542 with two hearts and I bet 425 into the 800 chip pot, planning on 3-betting all in if I'm raised. The button folds but the BB calls. The turn is an offsuit Ten and the BB checks again. I think about checking behind but the structure was so terrible that I didn't want to lose the pot if I missed. I finally decided to pot it, betting 1650 and leaving myself with about 2300. This way I can just call if he raises me instead of betting 800 and folding. He calls pretty quickly. The river is an offsuit 7, he checks and I go all in almost immediately. He sighs and folds. Wheeeee!

Blinds 100/200. UTG limps, leaving himself with 800 chips. UTG+1, same guy from the previous two hands, raises to 800 leaving himself with 1525 behind. It folds to me in the BB and I look down at AKo. I re-raise to put them both all-in. UTG folds and my friend folds 99 fairly quickly. I can't begin to explain how terrible that fold is. Terrible for him = good for me!

Blinds 300/600. UTG min-raises to 1200, leaving himself about 10K behind. I have 12K in the CO and call the raise with 33. We might be a little too shallow to call here but the blinds were going up to 500/1K in under a minute and I didn't feel like I could sit around forever. I also knew that I would be in position so I didn't necessarily need to flop a set to win the hand. The BB, a tight-looking old guy with about 20K, reluctantly calls and we see the flop 3-ways with 3900 in the pot. The flop is AJ8 with two clubs. The BB stares at the board for a loooong time and checks. UTG checks immediately and I bet 1800. BB calls and UTG folds. The turn is some small brick and now the BB leads for 2000 chips into the 7500 chip pot. It really felt like he had some crappy ace and was testing the waters to see if it was good or not. I felt pretty positive that he would fold to a raise so I jam for about 9K total. He tanks for a pretty long time and studied me intently. I just looked at him and smiled. Finally he folded and I turned to the guy on my left to show him the bluff. Obviously, the old guy says, "I want to see that hand" so he got the bluff rubbed in his face. It felt really good to (a) make the right read and (b) have the cojones to pull the trigger.

I ran my chips up to almost 40K before it all came crashing down. The blinds were 1K/2K and I found Th8h in the hijack. Stealing blinds isn't as important in Pot Limit because of the absence of antes but it's still good to pick up chips when you can and the table was playing tight. I raised to 5K and the BB tanked for a while before moving all-in for 11K and I had to call. He had AdJd and I couldn't find a ten or eight. The next orbit, the CO pots it to 7K, leaving himself 2K behind and I find AdTd on the button and repot but run into JJ. There's 20K down the drain and I basically ground my way into the money on steals and resteals. Every time I'd build my stack into a respectable size I'd run into AA and go back to potting all-in with Q2o. I finally busted just inside the money with T9o on the button against the BB's Q8o. I guarantee that he folds if we're still on the bubble. I bet he would fold at any point in the tournament, other than directly inside the bubble. People seem to lose their minds once the bubble bursts and chips go flying. I ended up making $600 CAD profit which is better than a kick in the pants. It was nice to get some live play in and I'm uuuuuuuber stoked for the main event.

Next weekend, Davis, Kenny, Silky and I are invading Denver for the Seahawks-Broncos game. I knew the 49er game was going to be tough but we'll get back on track against Green Bay this Monday Night. The Hawks are 6-4 but I think they're going to go 11-5, losing to either Denver on the road or San Diego at home. I can't wait to hang out in Denver over the weekend. I went out on the town when I was on the baseball road trip and the downtown area has a lot of cool bars condensed in a 3 or 4-block radius. Tailgating before the game should be fun too and I hope we don't get our asses kicked, both in the parking lot and on the playing field. Jay Cutler is rumored to be starting and hopefully he lays an egg. Anyway, more on that as it draws nearer.

I really need to get to bed so I don't fall asleep at the table tomorrow. Everyone out there, root for me to play well and run good. Peace.

Canada

I've been going up to Canada quite a bit lately trying to get my poker game back in shape. I've been playing pretty poorly but I am figuring stuff out and I'm definitely starting to play better. The results are also coming around and I predict that I'll soon have a mid-high 4-figure cash to report.

There's a pretty nice group of tournaments in Richmond, BC over Thanksgiving weekend so that's where I'll be while the rest of you are celebrating our slaughter of the Indians. The main event is $2500 CDN and, while I almost made a joke about how the $10 USD tournies on Poker Stars are bigger than that, the Canadian dollar is now sitting at a robust 88% or so and the buy-in is almost $2200 USD. My friends Smokey, Ozzy and Roman are all flying in for the tourney and we'll be staying at Casa de Bushman. His house is pretty insane and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures while I'm up there. I can't wait.

I am also rather amped for my upcoming trip. That's Seattle-Delhi-Singapore-Melbourne-Hanoi-Bangkok-Seattle over 10 weeks if you've forgotten. I sent my passport to the Indian embassy on the 2nd and I hope I get it back soon. I think it was supposed to take about 2 weeks and I hope I filled everything out correctly. I still need to go get shots but I'm pretty lazy. It doesn't look like I'll get scuba certified because apparently there are jellyfish in Australia this time of year and there's no cure. If you get stung, you die. Kind of a buzz-kill.

The jogging has not happened over the past few days and a major storm has hit so I don't know when I'll be able to get out there again. I kinda need to stretch my legs after sitting on my rear playing poker for 10 hours a days. The drive up to Canada is pretty brutal as well...I might have to start riding my bike up there or something.

Last night I learned how to rip DVDs and put them on my new video iPod. The first DVD that I ripped was Chappelle's Show Season 1 and everything went swimmingly. I then tried to rip Reservoir Dogs but it wouldn't work. I just bought Reservoir Dogs so it's possible that they've developed better encryption and DVD Decrypter can't rip it. Does anyone know of a newer/better DVD ripper than DVD Decrypter? Hook a brotha up!

Lastly, if you've been trying to get a hold of me(and who in their right mind wouldn't be trying to get a hold of me) I haven't been answering because my phone was dead and I had no charger. Well, I have a charger now, thanks to Harlow, and you can now call me. I still might not answer because I'm me but I might and that should make you all happy.

I need to get started on my homework so I'm going to leave this post short and sweet. This Saturday should be a great one for College Football. Give me a call if you want to hang out and drink beer while watching the Huskies and Buckeyes kick ass.

Hello

Is there anyone still reading this? It's November 13th and my last post was on October 18th. Yikes.

I'm not sure why I stopped blogging but I can think of a few excuses. Firstly, I can't find my USB cord for my camera and therefore can't share my awesome pictures from Kansas City. Here's one that Jimmy posted on my MySpace page. Women everywhere are getting on their knees for me, even in hostile territory:


I Suck! 

A second reason for failing to blog has been the depressing performance of our beloved Huskies and Seahawks. The Huskies have lost 6 in a row, including a 20-3 debacle to one of the worst teams in the NCAA, the Stanford Cardinal. Good thing they wrapped up win number 4 early or I'd be out $100. P.S. I was once playing a Sports Trivia game with Dave, Renee and Matt and the question was "name a college mascot that isn't an animal" and I yelled "CARDINAL" before someone else came up with some lame answer and they said it didn't count because I didn't specify that I was talking about the tree. I very clearly said "CARDINAL" and not "CARDINALS" but we argued until they convinced me to just have a redo with another question. Frikkin cheaters. I still won. Dominated even.

And the Seahawks were mired in a 1-3 stretch where we lost our starting QB and RB and the defense was giving up 50-60 points every game. Sure, we beat the Raiders in an ugly MNF game but this week we had the Rams coming to town looking to avenge their home defeat last month. I felt like crap about the game until...

NATE BURLESON! That punt return was one of the most exciting plays that I've ever watched and I don't give a crap if he ever catches another pass. He's money well spent in my book and earned every dime of his salary on that one play. Throw in the fact that Scott Linehan is a moron(going for it on 4th and 5 from the 31 when Wilkins is money AND going for it on 4th and inches from the 12 instead of taking the auto-three AND instead of running Stephen Jackson on 4th and inches running a crappy play-action pass to the fullback (YEAH RIGHT!)) and you reach the conclusion that the Hawks OWN the Rams and OWN the division. I'd love to see the Rams try to take us on with their back-up RB and QB. Gus Ferotte + Stephen Davis = yum yum. Anyway, I can't stand the Rams and it feels real good to sweep the season from them.

It looks like next week's Niners game will be surprisingly important and I hope the Hawks are up to the task. The Niners are lurking, only 2 games back and had a nice road victory today. I don't think they'll pose too many problems but I thought we would take care of the Vikings easily too so who knows.

I was pleased with the results of the election but I remain cautiously optimistic. Al wrote on his blog something like, "all we did was replace politicians with politicians". I really hate politics but I hope the message that got across is that people want more honest leaders. Honest politician is kind of an oxymoron but I hope it won't always be like that.

I'm also happy with the results of the local referendums. One initiative that I was happy to see pass is the one that disallows public subsidies for professional sports teams. Basically, it states that the state needs to receive "fair value" for any money that the public puts into a new stadium. Here's an article from the New York Times. My favorite excerpt is: "To many Sonics fans, the rejection of sports financing proves that old, laid-back Seattle has been crushed by elitist Prius-driving do-gooders." Hahahahahaha.

Well, I hope this gets me back on the blogging horse. Over the past month I traveled to San Jose and Foster City to see my Aunt and Dad, went on a great weekend trip to Kansas City(a very underrated city, IMO), hung out with by boy Kento, saw 3 Seahawks games live, went to my Fraternity's annual alumni event AND started jogging. I don't know if the upcoming weeks will be as eventful but I'm going to try to become a better blogger. And I'll fail. And Homer's lesson will come to fruition: "You tried and you tried and you tried but you still failed. What's the lesson? Never try."