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.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
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
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
Monday, January 15, 2007
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.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
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.
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.
Friday, January 12, 2007
<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.
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.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
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.
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.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
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'.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
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.
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.
Monday, December 25, 2006
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
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
Add to My Profile | More Videos
Shawn Kemp "The Reignman"
Add to My Profile | More Videos
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
Add to My Profile | More Videos
Shawn Kemp "The Reignman"
Add to My Profile | More Videos
Monday, December 18, 2006
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.
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.
Friday, December 15, 2006
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
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.
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.
Monday, November 13, 2006
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."
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."
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Random Musings
Here are some pictures from the Idaho wedding:
Davis, Christy and Me
Jager for everyone
Christy and Dave
This weekend I'm leaving town again, flying to San Jose to celebrate the 89th birthday of my Grandma's sister. Ever since the passing of my grandpa earlier this year, the family is trying to get together more often and not take each other for granted. I like the new attitude and I hope it doesn't fade but it inevitably will.
The Monday Night game was incredible. I can't imagine being an Arizona Cardinals fan and having to endure something like that. The Seahawks really need the Bears to lose so that we won't have to go back to Chicago in January. It's nice to be able to look forward to whether or not you're going to host the NFC Championship game instead of just worrying about making the playoffs. I really believe that if the Bears have to come here, there's no way they're leaving with a win. Unfortunately, they have what amounts to a 2-game lead at the moment since it's no good if we end the season with the same record. I think head-to-head is the first tiebreaker but I could be wrong. Anyway, please root against the Bears from now on. I hope Arizona has given other teams the blueprint to stopping Rex: BLITZ HIS PANSY ASS!!!
The M-E-T-S METS METS METS! won tonight forcing game 7 tomorrow. It's been said a million times but game 7s are one of the coolest things in all of sports. Watch this if you can. I will be in CLASS until 7:30 but I'll be checking for updates on my Treo. The Mets have Oliver Perez on the hill, sporting a 3-13 record and an almost 7-run ERA. Gross. Jeff Suppan, pitching for the Cardinals, shut the Mets down in game 3 and has a number of clutch postseason starts under his belt. On paper, it looks like the Cardinals have the edge. BUT THAT'S WHY THEY PLAY THE GAME! Shea is a magical place and I think this year's Mets team is something special. I really think that tomorrow's game will be great. Good luck to your Cardinals, Allen. They're going to need it.
The Seahawks should win on Sunday. They don't lose at Qwest. I'm a little worried about a letdown after the big win over the Rams but I think we'll be fine. The Huskies are in bigger trouble than I thought. Losing Stanback is a big blow, he was just starting to play like a winning quarterback. Stanford is still a gimme win but we may end the year with only 5. I'd really like to go to a bowl game this year so let's try to beat ASU next week!
That's all I have. Random musings about sports. San Jose, here I come.
Davis, Christy and Me
Jager for everyone
Christy and Dave
This weekend I'm leaving town again, flying to San Jose to celebrate the 89th birthday of my Grandma's sister. Ever since the passing of my grandpa earlier this year, the family is trying to get together more often and not take each other for granted. I like the new attitude and I hope it doesn't fade but it inevitably will.
The Monday Night game was incredible. I can't imagine being an Arizona Cardinals fan and having to endure something like that. The Seahawks really need the Bears to lose so that we won't have to go back to Chicago in January. It's nice to be able to look forward to whether or not you're going to host the NFC Championship game instead of just worrying about making the playoffs. I really believe that if the Bears have to come here, there's no way they're leaving with a win. Unfortunately, they have what amounts to a 2-game lead at the moment since it's no good if we end the season with the same record. I think head-to-head is the first tiebreaker but I could be wrong. Anyway, please root against the Bears from now on. I hope Arizona has given other teams the blueprint to stopping Rex: BLITZ HIS PANSY ASS!!!
The M-E-T-S METS METS METS! won tonight forcing game 7 tomorrow. It's been said a million times but game 7s are one of the coolest things in all of sports. Watch this if you can. I will be in CLASS until 7:30 but I'll be checking for updates on my Treo. The Mets have Oliver Perez on the hill, sporting a 3-13 record and an almost 7-run ERA. Gross. Jeff Suppan, pitching for the Cardinals, shut the Mets down in game 3 and has a number of clutch postseason starts under his belt. On paper, it looks like the Cardinals have the edge. BUT THAT'S WHY THEY PLAY THE GAME! Shea is a magical place and I think this year's Mets team is something special. I really think that tomorrow's game will be great. Good luck to your Cardinals, Allen. They're going to need it.
The Seahawks should win on Sunday. They don't lose at Qwest. I'm a little worried about a letdown after the big win over the Rams but I think we'll be fine. The Huskies are in bigger trouble than I thought. Losing Stanback is a big blow, he was just starting to play like a winning quarterback. Stanford is still a gimme win but we may end the year with only 5. I'd really like to go to a bowl game this year so let's try to beat ASU next week!
That's all I have. Random musings about sports. San Jose, here I come.
Monday, October 16, 2006
You Da Ho
I spent the weekend in the beautiful state of Idaho for my friend Christy's wedding. It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad that I went. Sun Valley was beautiful with the autumn colors and the weather was fantastic. Christy was a beautiful bride and I'm really happy for her. I don't have any pictures because I'm an idiot and always forget to pull out my camera but I'll try to get Davis to send me some of his. We definitely painted the town red and became very popular at the local watering hole. I'm definitely done drinking for the rest of my life. I just can't take the pain. Well, maybe not the rest of my life but maybe until December. I'm going to make a compromise: no getting drunk. A beer or two with friends is ok. 10 shots of Jager followed by 3 double shots of Maker's followed by 3 shots of Tequila is not ok. OK?
On Sunday morning we checked out of our condo and headed to our famous watering hole for the Seahawks game. It was a thrilling affair and the Hawks came through with a huuuuuuuge victory over the Rams. They rallied from down 21-7 at the half to win 30-28 on a 54-yard field goal as time expired. The defense really stepped up in the second half and shut down the Rams vaunted offense with the exception being an incredible touchdown reception by Torry Holt that demonstrated why he's one of the top WRs in the league, if not number one all by himself. Anyway, Tatupu seemed non-existent in the first half but made a number of great plays in the second. The Hawks stopped the run and got a good rush on Mr. Bulger and he isn't great under pressure. I think the game defensive MVPs were Julian Peterson and Bryce Fisher for their terrific pass rush in the second half. The offensive MVP has to be Deion Branch. I was a little on the fence when I first heard about the trade, wondering why in the world we needed a 4th receiver when we already had 3 very good ones. Now, Burleson can't seem to figure things out, Engram is hurt and Branch stepped up HUGE in his first game as a starter. We don't get to see it much but Hasselbeck throws a pretty darn good deep ball.
The main problem with the team is the interior line. Our guards both got beat pretty badly all day and we aren't going to be able to do anything against good/great nosetackles if that doesn't change. I'm not sure what to do here...I think Spencer will be good one day but he seems overmatched out there right now. Can he mature and gel with the unit by January? I sure hope so. I think Chris Gray will be fine but he didn't look very good last night. Finally, I like Mo Morris but it's so obvious that he's no Shaun. There were a number of plays where he had to break one tackle and he'd have 10 more yards or take it to the house but he kept going down. Shaun is good at stepping out of ankle tackles and making teams pay. I can't wait to get him back, I'm pretty sure that he would have had at least 50 more yards than MoMo did yesterday and we wouldn't have had to worry about making a clutch 54-yarder at the end of the game.
The Huskies lost and are now 4-3. This was a big game because the schedule isn't that easy from here on out. We have 3 road games, at Oregon, Cal and WSU. Only the WSU game is winnable, IMO. Then we have 2 home games against ASU and Stanford. I think the Stanford game is a lock, making the ASU game a must-win if we want to go to a bowl game. I don't know about you, but I'd love to go to a bowl game. This OSU loss really hurts and now we have no margin for error. Bah.
UPS delivered my new laptop a few hours ago and it's pretty fantastic. It's a 17" Dell 9400, the standard poker player's laptop. It has better resolution than my old laptop and it's much more powerful. I've spent most of the day installing different programs like Firefox and PokerStars. It's always fun to get a new toy. P.S., Firefox rules. If you use Internet Explorer, you aren't my friend.
I spent part of today thinking about my travel plans for this winter. I'm very excited for the trip but it got me thinking about listing the countries that I've been to already. Here's the list, in alphabetical order:
Argentina
Austria
Bahamas
Bermuda
Canada
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Germany
Greece
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Italy
Japan
Kenya
Mexico
Monaco
Netherlands
Norway
Puerto Rico
Spain
Tanzania
Turkey
United States
I think that's it. I thought there would be more than 25 and I'm kinda disappointed, especially because some of these countries shouldn't really count since I've only spent a day or so in some of them. Anyway, after this winter trip I'll be able to add India, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand and I'll be much happier.
I've been talking with Kenny's dad, Allen, about politics and how much I dislike torture and whatnot. Anyway, he sent me this in an email and it made me smile. I hope he doesn't mind my pasting it here:
"One thing I strongly believe is that rights and freedoms, while sometimes restricted during troubles, always make a comeback in this country. Can you imagine sending large groups of American Muslims off to camp as was done with American Japanese during WWII? I can’t. We try things and we learn. I believe one reason these freedoms always come back is because each generation keeps a careful eye on restrictions and doesn’t allow them to go unchallenged. So I’m glad you’re concerned."
I definitely agree with what he says and I like his optimistic viewpoint. I'm one of the most optimistic people that I know and I can't stand the pessimism that I've developed with regards to our country and its politicians. So hey, dear reader, please stay informed and object when you see wrong.
Tonight: Kangaroo and Kiwi. Wings, darts and Monday Night Football. Be there or be Davis(actually, he might show up this time. But he's still a pansy.)
On Sunday morning we checked out of our condo and headed to our famous watering hole for the Seahawks game. It was a thrilling affair and the Hawks came through with a huuuuuuuge victory over the Rams. They rallied from down 21-7 at the half to win 30-28 on a 54-yard field goal as time expired. The defense really stepped up in the second half and shut down the Rams vaunted offense with the exception being an incredible touchdown reception by Torry Holt that demonstrated why he's one of the top WRs in the league, if not number one all by himself. Anyway, Tatupu seemed non-existent in the first half but made a number of great plays in the second. The Hawks stopped the run and got a good rush on Mr. Bulger and he isn't great under pressure. I think the game defensive MVPs were Julian Peterson and Bryce Fisher for their terrific pass rush in the second half. The offensive MVP has to be Deion Branch. I was a little on the fence when I first heard about the trade, wondering why in the world we needed a 4th receiver when we already had 3 very good ones. Now, Burleson can't seem to figure things out, Engram is hurt and Branch stepped up HUGE in his first game as a starter. We don't get to see it much but Hasselbeck throws a pretty darn good deep ball.
The main problem with the team is the interior line. Our guards both got beat pretty badly all day and we aren't going to be able to do anything against good/great nosetackles if that doesn't change. I'm not sure what to do here...I think Spencer will be good one day but he seems overmatched out there right now. Can he mature and gel with the unit by January? I sure hope so. I think Chris Gray will be fine but he didn't look very good last night. Finally, I like Mo Morris but it's so obvious that he's no Shaun. There were a number of plays where he had to break one tackle and he'd have 10 more yards or take it to the house but he kept going down. Shaun is good at stepping out of ankle tackles and making teams pay. I can't wait to get him back, I'm pretty sure that he would have had at least 50 more yards than MoMo did yesterday and we wouldn't have had to worry about making a clutch 54-yarder at the end of the game.
The Huskies lost and are now 4-3. This was a big game because the schedule isn't that easy from here on out. We have 3 road games, at Oregon, Cal and WSU. Only the WSU game is winnable, IMO. Then we have 2 home games against ASU and Stanford. I think the Stanford game is a lock, making the ASU game a must-win if we want to go to a bowl game. I don't know about you, but I'd love to go to a bowl game. This OSU loss really hurts and now we have no margin for error. Bah.
UPS delivered my new laptop a few hours ago and it's pretty fantastic. It's a 17" Dell 9400, the standard poker player's laptop. It has better resolution than my old laptop and it's much more powerful. I've spent most of the day installing different programs like Firefox and PokerStars. It's always fun to get a new toy. P.S., Firefox rules. If you use Internet Explorer, you aren't my friend.
I spent part of today thinking about my travel plans for this winter. I'm very excited for the trip but it got me thinking about listing the countries that I've been to already. Here's the list, in alphabetical order:
Argentina
Austria
Bahamas
Bermuda
Canada
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Germany
Greece
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Italy
Japan
Kenya
Mexico
Monaco
Netherlands
Norway
Puerto Rico
Spain
Tanzania
Turkey
United States
I think that's it. I thought there would be more than 25 and I'm kinda disappointed, especially because some of these countries shouldn't really count since I've only spent a day or so in some of them. Anyway, after this winter trip I'll be able to add India, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand and I'll be much happier.
I've been talking with Kenny's dad, Allen, about politics and how much I dislike torture and whatnot. Anyway, he sent me this in an email and it made me smile. I hope he doesn't mind my pasting it here:
"One thing I strongly believe is that rights and freedoms, while sometimes restricted during troubles, always make a comeback in this country. Can you imagine sending large groups of American Muslims off to camp as was done with American Japanese during WWII? I can’t. We try things and we learn. I believe one reason these freedoms always come back is because each generation keeps a careful eye on restrictions and doesn’t allow them to go unchallenged. So I’m glad you’re concerned."
I definitely agree with what he says and I like his optimistic viewpoint. I'm one of the most optimistic people that I know and I can't stand the pessimism that I've developed with regards to our country and its politicians. So hey, dear reader, please stay informed and object when you see wrong.
Tonight: Kangaroo and Kiwi. Wings, darts and Monday Night Football. Be there or be Davis(actually, he might show up this time. But he's still a pansy.)
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Two In a Row!
I'm blogging on consecutive days! Holla! If you posted a comment, I replied with a comment.
The ALCS starts tomorrow with Nate Robertson facing Barry Zito. I can't say that I agree with Jim Leyland's rotation but he probably has a better idea of how his pitchers match up than I do. Here's how he has them lined up: Robertson - Verlander - Rogers - Bonderman - Robertson - Verlander - Rogers. IMO, Bonderman is the ace of the staff but he's only pitching once, in game four. If he skipped over Robertson and started Verlander in game 1 he could have Bonderman start games 3 and 7. As is, Verlander is pitching games 2 and 6, both on the road in hostile Oakland. If my rotation was in effect, Verlander would pitch game 1 on the road, but get to pitch game 5 at home. Kenny Rogers is 23-1 in the Oakland Coliseum since 1995 and under my plan he would pitch games 2 and 6, both in the stadium where he has dominated. Leyland has stated that he wants to give Rogers the extra rest after his emotional start in the Yankee series and it's clear that he likes having the veteran there to pitch game 7. Whatever, I think it's clear that Robertson is the worst starter out of the four and I'd like to have my best players in line to start 6 out of the 7 games. I'm definitely over-analyzing here but don't come crying to me when Barry Zito owns Robertson.
I've been watching Season 2 of Grey's Anatomy and must admit that it's a very good show. I can't watch shows on TV because I don't have the discipline to schedule my life around being in fron tof the TV at 8 PM every Thursday. However, I'm very good at watching a DVD for hours on end. After Grey's, I'll probably move on to Arrested Devlopment Season 2 and start watching Six Feet Under.
Well, that's all for now. For some reason I really wanted to post two days in a row. Let's go Mets!(sorry, Allen)
The ALCS starts tomorrow with Nate Robertson facing Barry Zito. I can't say that I agree with Jim Leyland's rotation but he probably has a better idea of how his pitchers match up than I do. Here's how he has them lined up: Robertson - Verlander - Rogers - Bonderman - Robertson - Verlander - Rogers. IMO, Bonderman is the ace of the staff but he's only pitching once, in game four. If he skipped over Robertson and started Verlander in game 1 he could have Bonderman start games 3 and 7. As is, Verlander is pitching games 2 and 6, both on the road in hostile Oakland. If my rotation was in effect, Verlander would pitch game 1 on the road, but get to pitch game 5 at home. Kenny Rogers is 23-1 in the Oakland Coliseum since 1995 and under my plan he would pitch games 2 and 6, both in the stadium where he has dominated. Leyland has stated that he wants to give Rogers the extra rest after his emotional start in the Yankee series and it's clear that he likes having the veteran there to pitch game 7. Whatever, I think it's clear that Robertson is the worst starter out of the four and I'd like to have my best players in line to start 6 out of the 7 games. I'm definitely over-analyzing here but don't come crying to me when Barry Zito owns Robertson.
I've been watching Season 2 of Grey's Anatomy and must admit that it's a very good show. I can't watch shows on TV because I don't have the discipline to schedule my life around being in fron tof the TV at 8 PM every Thursday. However, I'm very good at watching a DVD for hours on end. After Grey's, I'll probably move on to Arrested Devlopment Season 2 and start watching Six Feet Under.
Well, that's all for now. For some reason I really wanted to post two days in a row. Let's go Mets!(sorry, Allen)
Monday, October 09, 2006
Stuff, stuff and more stuff
It’s been 2 weeks. Sorry. Get ready for a bunch of rambling.
What in the world is wrong with our government? Most of my friends are worried about new legislation against online gambling but who knows if that’ll do anything. PartyPoker has announced plans to close all US-based accounts but other sites are going to remain open. Even if online poker dries up completely, it may not be a bad thing. Sure, it’s been fun to make money sitting on my ass, working less than 20 hours per week but eventually I want to do something better with my life. The shut-down of online poker might be the kick in the pants that I need.
Anyway, the bill that really pisses me off is the new Torture Bill. Basically, the bill gives the President the sick ability to order torture of prisoners and keep “enemy combatants” locked up without allowing them to challenge their imprisonment or see the evidence that is being used against them. The bill eliminates the idea of habeas corpus, a basic human right that has been used since the 12th motherfucking century. The bill makes me physically ill and I can’t believe that my country is doing this. Here’s a quote from President Bush in 2003: “The United States is committed to worldwide elimination of torture, and we are leading this fight by example. Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes, whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit.” What. The. Fuck.
I don’t like swearing when I write and I just swore twice in the same paragraph. I really don’t want to think about real life anymore. Let’s move on to…football!
The Huskies played a great game this weekend, falling just short of upsetting USC, the #3 team in the nation. Down 26-20 and driving, the Huskies were kinda screwed by the home field timekeeper and incompetent refereeing and ended up running out of time with the ball on the USC 15 yard line. With that said, if the boys make one or two more plays in the course of the game, it doesn’t matter who’s keeping time. I’m excited with the direction that the program is headed and I think we’ll be a national force in the not-so-distant future. I’m surprised that we’re playing so well but I’m definitely enjoying the ride. USC is also blatantly overrated. Gamblers beware: Don’t bet on USC unless you hate money.
The Seahawks have a huge game next week, at the NFC West leading St. Louis Rams. This game is faaaaar bigger than the Bears game so let’s hope for a different result. The Rams are finding ways to win and it’s always tough to play division games on the road. It’s nice that the Seahawks have had two weeks to prepare and get healthy. I also like the fact that this is the first game after the debacle in Chicago. I think the Hawks are eager to erase those memories and are going to burst out of the gate next Sunday. The Rams will probably come back from the early deficit but here’s hoping that the Hawks can hold on for a 27-23 victory.
In other NFL news, the Bears scare the crap out of me. I don’t like rooting for injuries but I wouldn’t be too sad if Grossman’s arm fell off. Also, Jamal Williams is a beastmaster deluxe. Man, it’d be nice to have a dominant Defensive Tackle. They’re so amazing at disrupting offensive rhythm and make every other defensive player better. Too bad Tommie Harrises and Shaun Rogerses don’t grow on trees. I feel bad for Chargers fans. They’re getting their hopes up when deep down they know that Marty Schottenheimer will never win a Super Bowl. I also feel bad for Texans fans. Can you imagine if your favorite team passed on Reggie Bush? Instead of watching him with excitement and marveling at his speed and athleticism you are filled with rage every time he touches the ball. God forbid he breaks a game-winning punt return. How does that make you feel? How great would it be to have the trio of David Carr, Andre Johnson and Reggie Bush as the offensive playmakers on your team for the next 8-10 years? The worst part of all is that it was such an obvious pick. It’s one thing if you draft Ryan Leaf and he sucks. Everyone projected him to go #2 and those are the breaks. It’s different when you have such a ridiculously clear-cut number one pick and you pass on him. Unreal.
I bought a new laptop this weekend. My current laptop is decent and less than two years old but it’s just not as reliable as I need it to be. It overheats and blue-screens on me sporadically and that’s just unacceptable. I ended up getting a 17” Dell that most of my poker friends have. It’s pretty nice and didn’t end up costing me too much coin. I’m pretty excited for the upgrade.
Ding dong, the Yankees are dead! I love love love great playoff pitching performances but they’re even better when against the Yankees. Kenny Rogers is a prick but I really enjoyed watching his gem in game 3. If he can pitch reasonably well, the Tigers will be tough to beat. Verlander and Bonderman are as good as anyone in the game right now and I wouldn’t want to face them. It’s proven, year after year, that great pitching is what wins in October. Before the playoffs started I figured the Yankees would slug their way to the World Series but I forgot the golden rule: pitching wins championships. I’d love to see a Mets-Tigers World Series and I wouldn’t bet against it happening. I think the Mets starters are just good enough to get the job done and their lights-out bullpen makes up for the lack of depth in the starting rotation. The Mets are definitely my adopted team for the postseason for a number of reasons. I went to 4 Mets games this year, all against the Braves, and watched the Mets win all four games, unofficially dethroning the perennial NL East champs in early May. I saw an epic 14-inning victory in which the Mets were down 6-2 in the 7th inning and still found a way to defeat Chipper. I also have anumber of good friends that are die-hard Mets fans and I’d love to see them happy. One such friend is Mike Gonzalez, who owes me $100 because the Huskies hit the over on 3.5 games won. Muahahahahaha. Anyway, it souds like I’m discounting the A’s and Cardinals but I’m just rooting for the best case. I wouldn’t be too surprised if the A’s won the American League with their great pitching staff. Zito, Harden and Haren can match up with any 3 starters in the league and their bullpen is also very good. I would be surprised if the Cardinals won the NL pennant. They just don’t impress me at all and will probably lose in 5 games. Let’s go Mets!
I’ve decided that I want to get in to hockey. Seattle doesn’t have a NHL team and I’ve always used that as an excuse but what’s wrong with claiming the Canucks as my home team? I’m sure that people in Vancouver claim the Seahawks and Mariners. Anyway, I’m going to follow the Canucks and hopefully head up north for a few games this year. I’ve been to a number of minor-league hockey games in Seattle and Vegas and I’ve had a great time. I can only imagine what a NHL game would be like. As of this moment, all I know about the Canucks is that they paid big bucks in the off-season for one of the top goalies in the league, Roberto Luongo. I’d never heard of him until last weekend but I guess he’s supposed to be good. The Canucks lost tonight but are 2-1 on the season. I can’t wait to buy a Luongo jersey.
I decided to get into hockey last weekend, while in Canada visiting my friend Chris. I went up specifically for the $2500 WCOOP Main Event and ended up coming in 26th out of 2510 players for almost $21K. It’s unbelievably crushing to go that deep in a tournament but at least this one paid pretty well. 1st place was over 1.1 million dollars and it just sucks to get through so many players and fall short of the big bucks. I can’t believe Stars got such an amazing turnout. 2500 people in a $2500 tournament. Sick. The players were pretty bad, too. Here’s a hand that happened with around 200 people left with blinds at 7500/15K:
SB (t779130)
BB (t694480)
UTG (t179878)
UTG+1 (t453715)
MP1 (t1140291)
Hero (t718342)
CO (t130061)
Button (t143884)
Preflop: Hero is MP2 with Ks, Ad.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t60000, 1 fold, Hero raises to t180000, 4 folds, UTG+1 calls t120000.
Flop: (t369000) Js, 3d, Qs (2 players)
UTG+1 bets t120000, Hero raises to t480000, UTG+1 calls t152215 (All-In).
Turn: (t1121215) 8c (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: (t1121215) 3c (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: t1121215
My opponent had 8h9h and scooped a huge pot. It was one of the strangest plays that I’ve ever seen and it’s incredible so see something so bad so deep in a huge tourney. Once he flat called the raise, I turned to Chris and said, “I’m calling a stop-and-go for sure”. Then made his weak lead and confused the crap out of me. Such a sick hand.
Here’s a hand that I played against him a few orbits later, with blinds at 10K/20K:
UTG (t481066)
UTG+1 (t717130)
MP1 (t539480)
MP2 (t349256)
MP3 (t613491)
CO (t1259791)
Hero (t555511)
SB (t205122)
BB (t1119108)
Preflop: Hero is Button with Ad, Jd.
4 folds, MP3 raises to t80000, 1 fold, Hero raises to t553511, 2 folds, MP3 calls t473511.
Flop: (t1121022) Ts, 2s, Jc (2 players)
Turn: (t1121022) Qs (2 players)
River: (t1121022) 4h (2 players)
Final Pot: t1121022
I mean, that’s a lot of chips to put in the pot with AJ but he’s loco and I didn’t want to have to deal with reraising and having him flat call again or giving him the opportunity to 4-bet me all-in, thinking he has some fold equity. I don’t know if it’s right but it felt good at the time. I ran pretty good with my coinflips and got some big hands at important times. Toward the end, I got knocked down to around 15 blinds when my AQ lost a 550K pot to AT and ultimately shoved 55 with 12 blinds UTG+2. I’m not sure if that’s too light but I hate dipping too far below 12 blinds because re-steals lose a lot of effectiveness. I felt like crap for a few days but I’ve gotten over it. Tourneys are so painful. One thing that I noticed while looking over my hand histories was the incredible cheering section that I had. I was focusing on the table and really didn’t realize there were so many people rooting for my cards to hit and whatnot. Thanks a lot if you were on the rail and I’m sorry if I ignored you. It’s always nice to have support. There was a hand, with about 100 left, where I got raised and folded, commented “nh” to the guy, and he responded with, “ty, I like your blog”. I laughed pretty hard.
Guess what I haven’t talked about yet…TRAVEL! I have a lot of big plans on the horizon but here are the trips in the near future:
October 13-15: Sun Valley, Idaho for my friend Christy’s wedding.
October 20-23: San Jose, CA for my great-aunt’s 89th birthday.
October 28-30: Kansas City, MO for Seahawks-Chiefs with Kenny and Allen Barron.
November 23-27: Richmond, BC for the BC Poker Championships
December 1-4: Denver, CO for Seahawks-Broncos
December 7-11: Honolulu, HI for the hell of it.
Right now, tickets to Hawaii are $327 after tax. I mean, I can’t really afford NOT to go. Right now it’s just me, Dave and Tasha but we’re looking for others who want to come and party. Come on, fun and sun in the middle of December! It’s necessary to stay sane. And isn’t your sanity worth $327?
I’m currently taking two classes at North Seattle Community College: International Business and business Law. I like both classes and I’m really enjoying being in school, even if it’s slumming at CC. School is the reason why I’m only taking weekend trips but I was smart enough to make sure I had Tuesday/Thursday classes so that I could enjoy 4-day weekends. After this quarter ends, I’m going to take off for a few months. Here’s the loose schedule:
December 26-January 7: India
January 7-February 10: Australia
February 10-March 3: SE Asia(Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand)
The India leg has been organized by my friend, Scott, who is flying in from Japan. Here’s what it looks like:
December 27: arrive in Delhi
December 28: Delhi
December 29: morning train to Agra and overnight train to Varanasi
December 30: Varanasi
December 31: fly to Mumbai and party like it’s 2007
January 1: Mumbai
January 2: Mumbai
January 3: fly to Goa
January 4: Goa
January 5: Goa
January 6: fly to Delhi
January 7: fly to Melbourne
The Australia leg starts with the Aussie Millions poker tournament which ends on January 19th. That gives me about 3 weeks to see things outside of Melbourne. I’d like to see Sydney and see the countryside. I’m thinking about getting certified for scuba-diving and doing that along with a number of other outdoor activities. I’d like to do river rafting and whatnot but it would be much more fun as a group activity so I’m going to try to recruit some of my poker friends to enjoy Australia with me post-tournament. I’ll update as this leg gets clearer.
The SE Asia trip will be with 3 good friends, Davis, CJ and H-T. H-T has planned everything here:
2/9/2006 Day 1 Travel
2/10/2006 Day 2 Travel
2/11/2006 Day 3 Hanoi
2/12/2006 Day 4 Hanoi
2/13/2006 Day 5 Hue
2/14/2006 Day 6 Hue, Hoi An
2/15/2006 Day 7 Hoi An, HCM
2/16/2006 Day 8 HCM
2/17/2006 Day 9 Phnom Penh / Siem Riep
2/18/2006 Day 10 Siep Riep / Angkor
2/19/2006 Day 11 Siem Riep / Phuket
2/20/2006 Day 12 Bangkok
2/21/2006 Day 13 Bangkok
2/22/2006 Day 14 Phuket
2/23/2006 Day 15 Phuket / BKK / Travel
This is what she sent me originally but I think we’re going to stay for an extra week. She speaks fluent Vietnamese and it’s always nice to travel internationally with a native speaker. I’ve heard that there’s great scuba in SE Asia as well so it really would pay to get certified.
OK, I’m good and tired and passing out must occur. Tomorrow you can find me at the Kangaroo and Kiwi for Monday Night Football and 25-cent wings. Be there or be Davis(pansy). Let’s go Mets!
What in the world is wrong with our government? Most of my friends are worried about new legislation against online gambling but who knows if that’ll do anything. PartyPoker has announced plans to close all US-based accounts but other sites are going to remain open. Even if online poker dries up completely, it may not be a bad thing. Sure, it’s been fun to make money sitting on my ass, working less than 20 hours per week but eventually I want to do something better with my life. The shut-down of online poker might be the kick in the pants that I need.
Anyway, the bill that really pisses me off is the new Torture Bill. Basically, the bill gives the President the sick ability to order torture of prisoners and keep “enemy combatants” locked up without allowing them to challenge their imprisonment or see the evidence that is being used against them. The bill eliminates the idea of habeas corpus, a basic human right that has been used since the 12th motherfucking century. The bill makes me physically ill and I can’t believe that my country is doing this. Here’s a quote from President Bush in 2003: “The United States is committed to worldwide elimination of torture, and we are leading this fight by example. Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes, whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit.” What. The. Fuck.
I don’t like swearing when I write and I just swore twice in the same paragraph. I really don’t want to think about real life anymore. Let’s move on to…football!
The Huskies played a great game this weekend, falling just short of upsetting USC, the #3 team in the nation. Down 26-20 and driving, the Huskies were kinda screwed by the home field timekeeper and incompetent refereeing and ended up running out of time with the ball on the USC 15 yard line. With that said, if the boys make one or two more plays in the course of the game, it doesn’t matter who’s keeping time. I’m excited with the direction that the program is headed and I think we’ll be a national force in the not-so-distant future. I’m surprised that we’re playing so well but I’m definitely enjoying the ride. USC is also blatantly overrated. Gamblers beware: Don’t bet on USC unless you hate money.
The Seahawks have a huge game next week, at the NFC West leading St. Louis Rams. This game is faaaaar bigger than the Bears game so let’s hope for a different result. The Rams are finding ways to win and it’s always tough to play division games on the road. It’s nice that the Seahawks have had two weeks to prepare and get healthy. I also like the fact that this is the first game after the debacle in Chicago. I think the Hawks are eager to erase those memories and are going to burst out of the gate next Sunday. The Rams will probably come back from the early deficit but here’s hoping that the Hawks can hold on for a 27-23 victory.
In other NFL news, the Bears scare the crap out of me. I don’t like rooting for injuries but I wouldn’t be too sad if Grossman’s arm fell off. Also, Jamal Williams is a beastmaster deluxe. Man, it’d be nice to have a dominant Defensive Tackle. They’re so amazing at disrupting offensive rhythm and make every other defensive player better. Too bad Tommie Harrises and Shaun Rogerses don’t grow on trees. I feel bad for Chargers fans. They’re getting their hopes up when deep down they know that Marty Schottenheimer will never win a Super Bowl. I also feel bad for Texans fans. Can you imagine if your favorite team passed on Reggie Bush? Instead of watching him with excitement and marveling at his speed and athleticism you are filled with rage every time he touches the ball. God forbid he breaks a game-winning punt return. How does that make you feel? How great would it be to have the trio of David Carr, Andre Johnson and Reggie Bush as the offensive playmakers on your team for the next 8-10 years? The worst part of all is that it was such an obvious pick. It’s one thing if you draft Ryan Leaf and he sucks. Everyone projected him to go #2 and those are the breaks. It’s different when you have such a ridiculously clear-cut number one pick and you pass on him. Unreal.
I bought a new laptop this weekend. My current laptop is decent and less than two years old but it’s just not as reliable as I need it to be. It overheats and blue-screens on me sporadically and that’s just unacceptable. I ended up getting a 17” Dell that most of my poker friends have. It’s pretty nice and didn’t end up costing me too much coin. I’m pretty excited for the upgrade.
Ding dong, the Yankees are dead! I love love love great playoff pitching performances but they’re even better when against the Yankees. Kenny Rogers is a prick but I really enjoyed watching his gem in game 3. If he can pitch reasonably well, the Tigers will be tough to beat. Verlander and Bonderman are as good as anyone in the game right now and I wouldn’t want to face them. It’s proven, year after year, that great pitching is what wins in October. Before the playoffs started I figured the Yankees would slug their way to the World Series but I forgot the golden rule: pitching wins championships. I’d love to see a Mets-Tigers World Series and I wouldn’t bet against it happening. I think the Mets starters are just good enough to get the job done and their lights-out bullpen makes up for the lack of depth in the starting rotation. The Mets are definitely my adopted team for the postseason for a number of reasons. I went to 4 Mets games this year, all against the Braves, and watched the Mets win all four games, unofficially dethroning the perennial NL East champs in early May. I saw an epic 14-inning victory in which the Mets were down 6-2 in the 7th inning and still found a way to defeat Chipper. I also have anumber of good friends that are die-hard Mets fans and I’d love to see them happy. One such friend is Mike Gonzalez, who owes me $100 because the Huskies hit the over on 3.5 games won. Muahahahahaha. Anyway, it souds like I’m discounting the A’s and Cardinals but I’m just rooting for the best case. I wouldn’t be too surprised if the A’s won the American League with their great pitching staff. Zito, Harden and Haren can match up with any 3 starters in the league and their bullpen is also very good. I would be surprised if the Cardinals won the NL pennant. They just don’t impress me at all and will probably lose in 5 games. Let’s go Mets!
I’ve decided that I want to get in to hockey. Seattle doesn’t have a NHL team and I’ve always used that as an excuse but what’s wrong with claiming the Canucks as my home team? I’m sure that people in Vancouver claim the Seahawks and Mariners. Anyway, I’m going to follow the Canucks and hopefully head up north for a few games this year. I’ve been to a number of minor-league hockey games in Seattle and Vegas and I’ve had a great time. I can only imagine what a NHL game would be like. As of this moment, all I know about the Canucks is that they paid big bucks in the off-season for one of the top goalies in the league, Roberto Luongo. I’d never heard of him until last weekend but I guess he’s supposed to be good. The Canucks lost tonight but are 2-1 on the season. I can’t wait to buy a Luongo jersey.
I decided to get into hockey last weekend, while in Canada visiting my friend Chris. I went up specifically for the $2500 WCOOP Main Event and ended up coming in 26th out of 2510 players for almost $21K. It’s unbelievably crushing to go that deep in a tournament but at least this one paid pretty well. 1st place was over 1.1 million dollars and it just sucks to get through so many players and fall short of the big bucks. I can’t believe Stars got such an amazing turnout. 2500 people in a $2500 tournament. Sick. The players were pretty bad, too. Here’s a hand that happened with around 200 people left with blinds at 7500/15K:
SB (t779130)
BB (t694480)
UTG (t179878)
UTG+1 (t453715)
MP1 (t1140291)
Hero (t718342)
CO (t130061)
Button (t143884)
Preflop: Hero is MP2 with Ks, Ad.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t60000, 1 fold, Hero raises to t180000, 4 folds, UTG+1 calls t120000.
Flop: (t369000) Js, 3d, Qs (2 players)
UTG+1 bets t120000, Hero raises to t480000, UTG+1 calls t152215 (All-In).
Turn: (t1121215) 8c (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: (t1121215) 3c (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: t1121215
My opponent had 8h9h and scooped a huge pot. It was one of the strangest plays that I’ve ever seen and it’s incredible so see something so bad so deep in a huge tourney. Once he flat called the raise, I turned to Chris and said, “I’m calling a stop-and-go for sure”. Then made his weak lead and confused the crap out of me. Such a sick hand.
Here’s a hand that I played against him a few orbits later, with blinds at 10K/20K:
UTG (t481066)
UTG+1 (t717130)
MP1 (t539480)
MP2 (t349256)
MP3 (t613491)
CO (t1259791)
Hero (t555511)
SB (t205122)
BB (t1119108)
Preflop: Hero is Button with Ad, Jd.
4 folds, MP3 raises to t80000, 1 fold, Hero raises to t553511, 2 folds, MP3 calls t473511.
Flop: (t1121022) Ts, 2s, Jc (2 players)
Turn: (t1121022) Qs (2 players)
River: (t1121022) 4h (2 players)
Final Pot: t1121022
I mean, that’s a lot of chips to put in the pot with AJ but he’s loco and I didn’t want to have to deal with reraising and having him flat call again or giving him the opportunity to 4-bet me all-in, thinking he has some fold equity. I don’t know if it’s right but it felt good at the time. I ran pretty good with my coinflips and got some big hands at important times. Toward the end, I got knocked down to around 15 blinds when my AQ lost a 550K pot to AT and ultimately shoved 55 with 12 blinds UTG+2. I’m not sure if that’s too light but I hate dipping too far below 12 blinds because re-steals lose a lot of effectiveness. I felt like crap for a few days but I’ve gotten over it. Tourneys are so painful. One thing that I noticed while looking over my hand histories was the incredible cheering section that I had. I was focusing on the table and really didn’t realize there were so many people rooting for my cards to hit and whatnot. Thanks a lot if you were on the rail and I’m sorry if I ignored you. It’s always nice to have support. There was a hand, with about 100 left, where I got raised and folded, commented “nh” to the guy, and he responded with, “ty, I like your blog”. I laughed pretty hard.
Guess what I haven’t talked about yet…TRAVEL! I have a lot of big plans on the horizon but here are the trips in the near future:
October 13-15: Sun Valley, Idaho for my friend Christy’s wedding.
October 20-23: San Jose, CA for my great-aunt’s 89th birthday.
October 28-30: Kansas City, MO for Seahawks-Chiefs with Kenny and Allen Barron.
November 23-27: Richmond, BC for the BC Poker Championships
December 1-4: Denver, CO for Seahawks-Broncos
December 7-11: Honolulu, HI for the hell of it.
Right now, tickets to Hawaii are $327 after tax. I mean, I can’t really afford NOT to go. Right now it’s just me, Dave and Tasha but we’re looking for others who want to come and party. Come on, fun and sun in the middle of December! It’s necessary to stay sane. And isn’t your sanity worth $327?
I’m currently taking two classes at North Seattle Community College: International Business and business Law. I like both classes and I’m really enjoying being in school, even if it’s slumming at CC. School is the reason why I’m only taking weekend trips but I was smart enough to make sure I had Tuesday/Thursday classes so that I could enjoy 4-day weekends. After this quarter ends, I’m going to take off for a few months. Here’s the loose schedule:
December 26-January 7: India
January 7-February 10: Australia
February 10-March 3: SE Asia(Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand)
The India leg has been organized by my friend, Scott, who is flying in from Japan. Here’s what it looks like:
December 27: arrive in Delhi
December 28: Delhi
December 29: morning train to Agra and overnight train to Varanasi
December 30: Varanasi
December 31: fly to Mumbai and party like it’s 2007
January 1: Mumbai
January 2: Mumbai
January 3: fly to Goa
January 4: Goa
January 5: Goa
January 6: fly to Delhi
January 7: fly to Melbourne
The Australia leg starts with the Aussie Millions poker tournament which ends on January 19th. That gives me about 3 weeks to see things outside of Melbourne. I’d like to see Sydney and see the countryside. I’m thinking about getting certified for scuba-diving and doing that along with a number of other outdoor activities. I’d like to do river rafting and whatnot but it would be much more fun as a group activity so I’m going to try to recruit some of my poker friends to enjoy Australia with me post-tournament. I’ll update as this leg gets clearer.
The SE Asia trip will be with 3 good friends, Davis, CJ and H-T. H-T has planned everything here:
2/9/2006 Day 1 Travel
2/10/2006 Day 2 Travel
2/11/2006 Day 3 Hanoi
2/12/2006 Day 4 Hanoi
2/13/2006 Day 5 Hue
2/14/2006 Day 6 Hue, Hoi An
2/15/2006 Day 7 Hoi An, HCM
2/16/2006 Day 8 HCM
2/17/2006 Day 9 Phnom Penh / Siem Riep
2/18/2006 Day 10 Siep Riep / Angkor
2/19/2006 Day 11 Siem Riep / Phuket
2/20/2006 Day 12 Bangkok
2/21/2006 Day 13 Bangkok
2/22/2006 Day 14 Phuket
2/23/2006 Day 15 Phuket / BKK / Travel
This is what she sent me originally but I think we’re going to stay for an extra week. She speaks fluent Vietnamese and it’s always nice to travel internationally with a native speaker. I’ve heard that there’s great scuba in SE Asia as well so it really would pay to get certified.
OK, I’m good and tired and passing out must occur. Tomorrow you can find me at the Kangaroo and Kiwi for Monday Night Football and 25-cent wings. Be there or be Davis(pansy). Let’s go Mets!
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