A Little Break From Thinking

I figured I'd write a little update for any readers out there since I haven't posted anything in a while. I have a couple things mid-work, but nothing finished or written enough to post.

For the most part of the past few weeks I've gone into a little mental vacation. With the addition of the cat, thoughts of my birthday Vegas trip in a couple weeks filling my head, and starting to finally come into range of being financially comfortable for the upcoming year, I've been able to relax and chill out for a little bit.

Last game at Paul's I won the $20 rebuy tourney, and on the next game I'll be collecting the $100 Darsky will be owing me, barring he wins both tournies in one night and I don't point cash in either. I've lost a little overall sports betting on the NFL now (those tricky professionals), but my miniscule gambling ventures over the past couple months has kept me in the black.

In two weeks we'll have a group of ten armed with alcohol and good spirits heading to Vegas, as we've rounded up the troops for my birthday celebration. Along with my birthday, Casey and his girlfriend Sommer will be returning from their semester in Hawaii so we'll be celebrating that as well. We've booked a couple suites at the Venetian and I'm sure it'll be a blast for all involved.

Anyways, like I said I have a couple posts half-written so if I get around to it in the month of December I'll post them up.

Until next time.

A New Member Joins the Family

Time has been flying by at slow speed lately. Every day at work I seem to find myself more and more bored, dazing off and wondering when the next Vegas trip is gonna be and pondering if I'll ever find art to hang on my bedroom walls that I actually like.

I think about what games I'll bet (and most likely lose) on the upcoming weekend, what I'd like to do later in my life, and if there's some new music out there that I'd instantly fall in love with should I somehow find a way to discover it. I think about how I never go to any concerts nowadays. I think about how I never play poker seriously on a regular basis anymore.

I think about when payday is, I think about my delayed raises, and I wonder about how I can triple my yearly salary by the snap of a finger by stumbling upon some great get-rich-quick plan that no one else in the past two decades has ever thought about (we all think about that, don't we?)

I think about if I could have made it in on the felt if I would've put more study and discipline into the game. I wonder if I'll ever be able to man up and put some time and effort into writing or graphic design to actually do something for myself in life. I think about how little I have to do to get back to school within a reasonable amount of time so I don't end up like more than half of this uneducated country of ours, who struggle day in and day out to grind themselves a living in a shit job. I then think about how lazy I am and quietly turn my attention back to my work monitor for more mindless internet browsing.

Yay.

And then at the end of the week and at the end of the month, I wonder where my money went and how it's already halfway through football season. For as much time as I spend doing nothing, life sure seems to be going by a lot faster nowadays. I find excuses for why I haven't been blogging regularly or why I haven't done my full closet's worth of laundry in a month. I'll figure it out...next week.

Last weekend, after I spent the majority of my week doing as I described above, I went to Ventura on Saturday night for some time with Steph and her friends over some drinks. When I showed up at her house she had a huge, awkward smile on her face. She quickly came out of her room and slammed the door shut behind her.

I knew something was up, I just couldn't tell what. Maybe she was hiding a mess. Maybe she was hiding another guy. Maybe she was hiding...a fart?

I asked her what she was doing and she said nothing, but then I heard a distinct jingling sound that could only be a small pet. She opened the door and I saw a beautiful little kitty with a black eye patch. I've wanted the specific cat for a while, so I could call him Pirate (eye patch obv).

"Holy cow, did you just get him?"

"Yeah," she answered shyly. "He's Pirate. He's yours."

I was ecstatic! I've been wanting a pet for some time now, but our apartment won't allow dogs unless they're small, like cats. I'll never be the sole owner of such a dog, so I've been thinking of getting a badass kitty for a while. The one I would've picked out for myself is the exact one she found and adopted for me.

I went to pet him and he immediately took to me. Right off the bat he was the most loving cat I've ever seen. I took him home the next morning and he's been a blast to have around ever since.

To get on a real sappy note here, since I've re-met Stephanie, I've been happier than I've been in a long time. Before we started dating, I had found a subtle ground in life that allowed me to contently sail through it. Ever since I fell for Steph I've been better than fine, and I find myself thinking of her (and now Pirate of course) in times of mental peril.

Furthermore, here's some pictures of the badass:




And in his best Firefox impression:

Philly Loses Again

I must have the thickest skull of any person I know. The lessons I am supposed to learn over and over again just never go through my head. By any stretch of imagination it takes far too many repeated failures in a single area for my body and mind to reach an understanding of something so simple that even the most obviously imbecilic child on the planet could grasp in a New York minute.

Unfortunately for me I live in Philadelphia time, and apparently I trade Philadelphia money in an NFL market that is far wealthier than Eagles fans. I did okay last weekend (editor's note: since when did the correct grammatical way of writing the word "okay" switch to "OK"?) when Green Bay pulled an overtime win and I hit my underdog card for a decent payday.

Although this is only the third weekend I've been sports betting, I've won on the only weekend where I bet on my instincts. This weekend I put too much trust in numbers and hearsay to lose 2 seemingly "sure-win" cards, while having my one instinct card go to the wayside when I let my personal preferences get in the way.

My inexperienced eyes saw a lot of opportunity in Teaser games this weekend, so I decided to go bigger than usual. I ran a six team 6-point teaser across the morning and afternoon games, and for whatever reason I tacked on Philly +9.5 to finish off the card. The morning started off with Washington and San Francisco getting good overage lines thanks to the Teaser points. Into the afternoon I had Houston +9 and Buffalo +7.5 which both would've on the moneyline, as well as having New England bumped up to even money.

Because of all of these games, I had 10u going in based on my read on the league and my study of the numbers. At the last second I added on Philly for no other reason than my love for the team. The analysts said no, the numbers said no, my brain even said no, but on one partially inebriated noon my heart said yes and I pulled the trigger on tacking on Philly +9.5 at home against Romo-mania. 10u to win 70u.

Well, I was weary going into the Sunday night game, and when McNabb fumbled the first snap of the game I tore my card up and knew that I had no shot whatsoever to even come close to the inflated spread. My dreams of going big on this particular weekend were brutally shot down by my favorite team, and not for the first time.

While I admit that I was toxicated when I ran that specific card, overall I didn't listen to my gut and therefore lost on all counts. I ghost watched the picks that I would've made, and had I followed through with what I truly wanted instead of listening to words and numbers that came from outside sources, I would've won on the weekend and covered the 10u loss that I endured last night.

Although I have a very fresh and unexperienced sports betting mind, I think that if I stick to what I do know, I can come out ahead by a decent margin by the end of the season. For now, it's back to the drawing boards for next weekend, and maybe a little "get well soon" bet on the Monday night game tonight.

Until next time.

Go Pack Go!

I'm not a Green Bay fan, but I was sure rooting for them to win last night. Brett Favre is a legend in the game, and everyone knows it. Anyone who denies that he is clearly has no idea what they're talking about.

Not only does he play the game great, but he plays with more passion, more emotion, and more love for the game than anyone in the league right now. He shows that he's happy when he's winning, and he shows that he's determined when the Pack are trailing.

Putting your heart, not just your body, into the game is something that should not go overlooked nowadays. The league is too full of crybabies and spotlighters. Receivers prance around like idiots in the endzone and linemen chop invisible trees when they do their job and make a tackle behind the line. Players complain about salaries, and when they can't do that they complain about their teammates.

Favre stays out of all that. When he throws for a touchdown the only celebration you'll see from him is his index fingers pointing in the air as he runs to his closest teammate to give them a hug, all the while shouting with happiness, proud that both he and his team can play the game. He's a true player, a true lover of football.

With all of that being said, #4 wasn't the reason I was happy to see the Packs win last night. Because they did take the W I score my weekend saving underdog parlay card, hitting for a +4312 to recover some loss on other games and come up with a decent profit. It's still small beans moneywise, but I'm workin my way up.

I would've hit for another smaller card if Tennessee would've covered the seven points, which was easily doable. The Raiders put up 14 penalties for 100 yards and had two turnovers. On top of that, they are just a horrid, horrid team, and I was shocked and pissed that the Titans couldn't capitalize on their opportunities in game.

I refused to bet the Philadelphia game this weekend, mainly because I've made a vow to not bet their games for the rest of the season. I'm tired of sitting at home watching my team and money get blown by boneheaded plays and faulty formations on field. I wasn't gonna do it again this weekend.

I headed over to my dad's house this weekend to enjoy the one thing that I can about the Philadelphia Eagles: they'll destroy the Minnesota Vikings every time they get on the same field.

After a horrible first half of the season, I've become quite the dejected Eagles fan. The defense is battered and the offense is not even mediocre. They had a rough start to the season and coming off of a bye week they crushed the Detroit Lions, putting up 56 points total with Kevin Curtis accounting for 221 yards in the receiving lane and Brian Westbrook running for 110 yards.

I was excited to see them win, and from the central NFL hub that is my father's house, I was able to keep track of all of my games and bets thanks to his NFL Gameday package. This weekend we have Paullywood Park coming up, and I'll probably stay at my dad's again on Sunday so that I can channel-change the day through while I either win or lose some more money.

All in all, it was a pretty good Sunday, with my weekend betting culminating in an overtime win by the green and yellow.

Until next time.

Damn You Philly...Damn You

Another weekend in the NFL has passed and like a broken spring in a set of gears, another Philadelphia fan has shot out of the They'll Be Okay clock and has landed in the bucket of Maybe Next Year among his fellow sprigs. Football. It's wonderful. It's painful.

This weekend's loss at home against the Bears hurt a little extra, because as much as I didn't want to bet on the Eagles, I had them holding up two of my remaining parlay cards well into Sunday afternoon. Everything looked good. Everything looked fine.

1:30 left in the fourth quarter, Philly up by 4. Chicago has no more timeouts. Deep in their own territory. Philly just don't let them in the endzone for a minute and a half. Simple stuff. Here we go!

1:00 left in the fourth quarter. Griese airs one out and completes to midfield. No problem. They have no timeouts and a field goal won't do. The Eagles know it, they know that all they have to do is for sixty seconds keep the Bears out of the endzone and they go 3-3 and have a small shot in the division.

0:09 left in the fourth quarter. I'm crying on the couch, cursing the Eagles through my tears for the amount of money I would have won on the two cards. Instead I'm left punching the couch cusions for two hours straight because I end up losing money in the end, thanks to Philly giving up a game-winning touchdown with :30 left.

I'm not the only Philadelphia Eagles fan ready to look ahead to next season. I'm sure there a few who started before I did. And I'm not the only one who lost money thanks to the Eagles this weekend, nor did I lose more than anyone. But the feeling of needing my team to win in order to have a shot of coming into playoff contention later this year coupled with the fact that they were all that stood between me and a healthy win pushed me over the mental sports fan cliff.

Obviously this isn't going to keep me from betting the games again this weekend. I need redemption! This past weekend I would've won despite the Eagles draining loss if I had listened to my guts instead of the numbers and the "experts". But, like I'll be tempted to do, I listened to the voices outside of my head and it cost me. I have a new strategy coming this weekend, and hopefully I'll be able to pick up a little bit of cash.

In other gambling related news, I'm currently planning my birthday trip to Vegas. There should be a decent group of us getting a few suites at the Venetian and doing the Vegas thing the weekend before Christmas.

What does that mean? Everyone will have just finished up Christmas shopping and will be awesomely out of cash, so it looks like the small weekends in Vegas will continue for a little while longer.

I've started to enjoy small weekends in Vegas, as the last trip with my dad turned out to be another unforgettable experience in Sin City. The stories I hear on a regular basis about his past times in Las Vegas make me love it even more. This trip was a little more personally enjoyable, as it was not only another vacation, but it was a fun time spent with my father, which is something I haven't had in a long, long time.

I'm going to write that trip report soon, and will probably be putting up a Vegas section to this blog. I'm also thinking of starting a new, possibly joint, blog about my Vegas trips instead. I'm also currently trying to redo Sitting The Apple's layout, which is part of the reason why there's been a huge lack of updates.

In the end, I'll tell you I'll keep trying to update. But I'll slack, you'll get mad at me, call me names, and then come crawling back once again to this wonderful outlet of my mind and useless ramblings. At least I update more than Darsky... and I work so at least I have an excuse you long-haired freeman!

Until next time.

Pendulur Sickness

For the past while now I've been in and out of small bouts with sickness. It's been nothing close to extremely sick until today, but up until today it's been more of a constant state of soreness and misery than actual illness. Of course it all started with a phone call into work to play hooky. And wouldn't you know it by the end of my day at home I actually was feeling sick. It's just the perfect kind of irony that keeps me straight.

My crappy chair at work, where I spend all of my pointless hours during the day (which is all of my hours during the day), has been causing me a lot of soreness to my neck and back. The life of a paid internet browser is tough, there's no doubt about it.

I haven't really felt like blogging for a while, mainly because of my personal mental state. I've fallen back into the whole "I shouldn't be working" mentality, but with every thought of quitting comes a contrary thought and reason why I should stay.

I just took another small getaway to Vegas though, so I'll be writing that up soon and will hopefully have something for you all to read. I'm not sure how many readers I still have after leaving this thing dry over and over again, but as soon as I get out of this mental slump I plan on getting all those lost readers back.

Until next time.

This is the Game I Am Currently Sucking At

With my makeshift year 2000 sound setup. New one coming soon.

Living in High Def

Whether it be poker or technology, I try to pretend like I know what I’m doing. I know very little in some areas of both, but in whole I really have no idea what I’m talking about. Although from time to time I may sound like I fit in with the niche that has been created around either field, it’s only because I get caught in the right conversations with the right people who just happen to ask such the right questions that I can squeeze out answers with what limited knowledge I do have.

I have a fancy phone with cool gadgets, a decent laptop with fancy gadgets, and a massive amount of poker related things, mostly books and an insane amount of assorted poker chip sets according to any sane person. But in reality, I let the hype of these things take place of the actual understanding of putting any of it to use. Don’t let this deter you from thinking I’m a hard and true badass, cuz I definitely am, but I know nearly nothing compared to the world of knowledge that surrounds both poker and electronics.

In any case, I’ve gotten a decent taste of everything over the past couple of weeks. Two weeks ago on the Friday night before our Saturday night game at Paullywood Park, Darsky and I headed down to Hollywood Park for a little poker action. I was planning on a night of drinking with Joe and a couple friends in Santa Clarita, but when I was presented an opportunity to play on Darsky’s dime, I couldn’t pass up the offer.

I have another trip report written up for that weekend which I’ll post soon, but it’s gonna have to go on hold until I write about my faux technology addiction. I’ve been meaning to get an awesome new TV for a while now, but thanks to my misunderstanding of the game of poker over the past two years I’ve been unable to comfortably afford one.

I’ve been wired into the tables of casinos across the nation for a long time now, and I’ve been completely unplugged from the technological world around me. I use it, I want to get to know it, but I haven’t been able to own it or love it as my own. While I’ve spent countless hours dumping my earned money at poker tables and blackjack tables at Chumash, Vegas, and Turning Stone (the won money was put back into the game around a year and a half ago), my friends have been out spending their money on tangible objects that shine, shout, and display glorious visions of the future around their houses.

Most of my 20-21 year old friends are broke anyways, so I don’t feel so bad that I am for the most part as well. However, they always manage ways to fund their addictions to hottest new toys on the market, much in the way that I always manage to scrape up just enough money to help the casino fund their comp for one of their highroller’s $300 steaks; the difference is my friends get to use theirs every day instead for a weekend like me.

The thing I've noticed about myself, though, is that I'm so frugal when it comes to spending money on things (with the exception of dinners), but I feel no restraint when it comes to betting $300 on a single hand of blackjack. I've seen that because I actually refuse to spend money on things that I want on an every-day basis, I've had money in the past to throw away to my reckless fearlessness inside of a casino.

Because I realized all of this stuff, I decided to cool it on the serious gambling for a bit and concentrate on building up a reputable collection of my own technology and house adornments. I started with a laptop, a digital camera, and Motorola Q before I decided to leap into a new TV and an XBOX 360. I was planning on waiting until December to make the plunge, and I had been putting in a bit of time looking at and talking about LCDs and DLPs with friends of mine who are more savvy in the matter.

I also couldn’t decide if I wanted to get a TV for my bedroom or for the living room, which I share with two roommates on a daily basis, one of whom is known for being messy beyond a higher being’s ability to stop it. After a bit of thinking, I had firmly decided that come the last month of the year, I was going to buy myself a birthday present of a 42” LCD and 360 which would be safely located within the boundaries of my bedroom. That was until I found a deal I couldn’t pass up.

Two Fridays ago I was browsing a couple forums when I came across a deal that Best Buy was having. In order to liquidate their DLPs for the new year’s models, as well as to advertise and boost the hype for the upcoming release of the newest addition to the hugely praised Halo series, a huge online sale was being hosted. If a person were to buy a Samsung DLP 50”+, an XBOX 360, and pre-ordered Halo 3 through Best Buy, they were giving $410 off of the TV and free delivery. At first I was skeptical of the deal, but as more and more people chimed in on the legitimacy of both the deal and the products, I had to find something for myself!

Still recovering from financial hell and being on a low budget, I needed something that I could afford yet still feel good about buying. There were a few selections of TV to choose from, yet I decided to go with a price saver that’s around middle of the field for TV’s nowadays. I purchased the Samsung 50" 720p DLP HDTV HLT5075S. After reading the great reviews it got, I felt that it would be an adequate purchase to feed my desire to be seen as a tech guru while staying within an affordable price range.

I know that it isn't the greatest TV out there, and it's not even close. However, HD TV channels only broadcast in 720p, and since the majority of it's usage will go towards TV it's not bad at all. I wouldn't want to cramp my room with a 50" DLP (13" deep), but it fits perfectly in the living room, actually takes up less space than our previous 36" CRT, and with this cheap of a price I won't be too upset if the thing gets crapped out due to roommate conditions. The downside is that without 1080p we can't watch HDDVD's to their utmost capabilities, nor will video games output their max potential. With that being said, the games that I've played so far look insane, and like stated the HDTV channels come in crystal clear.

I decided to go with the XBOX 360 with the knowledge that I'll be getting a far superior TV sometime in the future that will be able to handle anything thrown at it, and even in this new setup the 360 displays awesomely on our TV.

In total, I was able to grab the TV, the 360 Elite, and Halo 3 for less than $1,300. It's hooked up, our HDDVR cable box is hooked up, and just in time for Sunday football (even though the Eagles need to go back to the offseason already so they can learn how to play the game again). We are all now enjoying our weekly shows and weeknight Halo 3 online anger-fests in high def and I couldn't be more content.

I can't decide whether surround sound is next or if I'm going to further fuel my TV want with a top of the line LCD for my bedroom. Of course, knowing me, I'll end up spending zero dollars on either one and I'll be writing another blog entry from my Vegas hotel room a couple months from now, complaining that I should've just bought another damn TV and had something to show for the $2,000 I just dropped only to stare at a grimacing dealer's face and retire to a night long view at the Strip from 30 stories up.

Only time will tell where my money will end up in December, but for right now it's back to the tech forums to see if I can't actually learn something about all the new stuff I'll want to end up buying.

Also, I fixed the internet at our apartment and I have a bunch of stories to tell, so hopefully....just maybe....just....just by a random hopeless chance, I may start updating regularly again.

Until next time.

Technimoron

I haven't updated in a while because I've been busy, and for the past few days I knocked out my internet connection at my apartment thanks to me being an idiot who can't figure some things out. It should be back again soon, as should some new posts here on Sitting the Apple. That is unless Halo 3 shows up in the mail around the same time that I fix my internet. If it does, this blog might be in limbo for a few extra days.

If I get around to it today I might write up a post from work, but I don't know how likely that is. In any case, something will be up sometime soon, as I had a pretty fun weekend.

Until next time, here's a picture of a rare albino ratfish for no reason:

Credit to the University of Washington.

Reflections On Success

As I sit at work, staring at my desk and mentally digging deeper and deeper, all I can think about is success. The fuckin word won't leave my mind. I need it, I want it, I know I can have it. But what is it? What defines it? How does one achieve it?

For the longest time I thought that success would come in the form of financial fortune and that it was possible to achieve in one hit through gambling. I've since been removed from gambling and playing poker on an every day basis, and along with it far removed from the thought of reaching wealth by means of easy luck.

Living in Santa Barbara and having gambling be such a big piece of my life for so long has increased my need to be financially successful in life. I can't get away from rich people, and I need a piece! Success in life is more than wealth. It's family, it's having great friends, it's being personally true to yourself, it's being comfortable, it's finding peace. At the same time one cannot deny the fact that money gives you an outlet to some of the latter descriptions of the word.

Every day I see success even from my post in the office. My big boss has turned his life into a never ending fairytale as he sits atop the hills of Santa Barbara in his multimillion dollar Italian villa that he's built from the ground up. He has a hired accountant, a slew of monthly bills that quadruples my paycheck, and a portfolio that looms over my salary like it was a bug.

He wasn't always wealthy, though. He started as a computer programmer before computers could function by themselves. When he found out the business of a family friend was being sold, he bought it. He worked, he turned it into something to be proud of. He was presented an opportunity and he took it.

My little boss married the big boss's daughter and now leads a life of luxury, opening his mouth wide daily to swallow the drippings of the family's fortune. He works a menial yet crucial job, as he's capable and willing to do. He works as much as he has to and a little more, but he's understanding and a fun boss to have, partially because he's in the position to be. He'd done well for himself already, there's no doubt about it.

He finished school, found himself a nice job as the dean of a large technical institution, and was able to provide for his family. He worked a difficult and stressful job, but stuck with it and made a healthy living as such. But when presented with the option to do half the work for almost the same pay, along with the rights to won a multimillion dollar company with his wife, there wasn't much debate. He was presented an opportunity and he took it.

Both men are outstanding people, and I can't be happy enough to work for them. On a personal level they are some of the funnest, most enjoyable people I've ever met. On a job level, they've worked hard in life and are now at a point where they can rest and relax first, and work hard for little bits at a time second. I can only hope to be at their level later in life.

But how do I get there? That's been the question roaming the empty halls of my head for the past months. So many success stories I've heard have been that someone has just been in the right place at the right time. They had info on a stock that happened to go big when it did. They were able to buy a business and they, even without the money, personally knew a wealthy investor to go in with. They were able to get a job for the right person and ended up in the right conversation when it was taking place.

Whatever the circumstance I see so much success come from random events. But that doesn't suit me. I know I can make it in the financial world by my own way. I have the brain, I have the drive for success. Perhaps not currently as I'm stuck behind a desk and a computer making less money than what's going to make me happy, but I have the drive.

I want to invest in the stock market, I want to own my own business, I want to invest in real estate. I've bought books and I've read about it all, but I haven't been able to figure any of it out on my own. I'll get to the point that I need to be at one day because I desperately want it, and I know I'm smart enough to get it.

I keep looking for a teacher though, I keep looking for a hand to hold. Perhaps this is one of my weak points in life. If it is the thing holding me back then one day I'll overcome it and achieve my goals.

For now, I'll just push through. I'll keep looking, I have to. Perhaps I need to go back to school to be happy, but maybe I just need to find my calling. Whatever is out there, I'm ready for it. I've settled my life in other subjects, and I'm ready to find myself in the financial world. Hopefully I'll make it.

This kind of turned into a thoughtless and random rant, but I have so much goin on in my head and in my life right now. Everything seems to be getting clearer and a lot of things have fallen into place to make me a happy person. The next step is close, I can feel it...

Until next time.

An Angry Couch Coach and Meeting Mom

Sunday was a disappointing opener to the season, as Philly lost what was supposed to be an easy win against Green Bay. Even though a couple big roster changes took place on the defense, it ended up being the Eagles' sophomoric special teams show that brought them to lose.

In starting Lewis to return punts for the first time in his NFL career, they allowed numerous mistakes. In general it looked like the team forgot about special teams training altogether. Every punt return looked even worse than my unrated high school team, resulting in a fumble recovery for a touchdown, a turnover, and a tackle that could have been misconstrued for a decapitation.

As I sat on my couch and yelled at the multi-million dollar franchise and its players and coaches, I saw the fresh defensive team make plays and bring on the power that Jim Johnson so awesomely creates for the team. Unfortunately, the punt return mistakes are what ultimately lead to their first loss of the season against a team that should have presented less of a challenge.

Although I've abandoned the thought of betting the season through this year, I thought about betting this game this weekend. In the end I'm glad I decided not to, as I'd be pretty upset because of the way the game was lost. Overall, it was pretty disappointing.

Saturday was a more satisfying day. I went to Ventura to meet Steph's mom and have dinner, and it was a great time. From the stories I'd heard I knew I'd like her mom, and she seemed just weird enough to like me back. Upon first impression she didn't disappoint!

I wasn't sure what to expect at first, but when she showed up she had a cute style and a personality that I knew I could get along with. We hung out at Steph's while I sat on the couch and listened to the two of them talk about stuff for a little bit before we went to dinner, where I really got to talk and get to know her mom. Towards the end of dinner Steph began to get irritated with her, as seems to be the norm with a lot of girls I've been around for whatever reason, but I still thought her mom was awesome fun.

I'm sure I have a great time comin with her as Steph and my relationship moves forward. I'm heading back out to Ventura after work today for a barbecue at her mom's place along with Stephanie's friends and roommates, and I can only assume that it's gonna be a good time. I'm eager to get to know the crew better, so hopefully things will go smoothly...

As the year moves forward I'm thinking more heavily about what I'm going to buy myself for my birthday this year, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a new TV and a 360. I don't watch too much TV nor do I play too many video games, which is why I've yet to make these specific purchases. But I would like to have both nonetheless, so as December nears I'm thinking more heavily about exactly what TV I want to get and whether or not it's going into the safety of my room, or if I should leave it in the hazard zone of the living room.

Blah, too much thinking for a Monday. I'll elaborate more later.

Until next time.

A Turning Stone and a Tender Bender

If it's not my eternal laziness that keeps me from updating a week at a time, it's some sort of venial interruption. This past week a new stone was turned with Joe's 21st birthday. Although Joe and I have been drinking for years previous to each of our legality-introducing-celebrations (and gambling for just as long), a 21st birthday should never be overlooked or under-partied. This was no exception.

Unfortunately for Joe's birthday we had to skip Vegas as he is a mere student at this point, having been removed from poker for over a year now. He did receive a small lump of money for his birthday, but he had other priorities with which to allocate that cash. Us three apartment-ies are planning on going in December, so we knew he'd get to visit the sinful wonderland soon enough. But for the time being, there was drinking to be had.

On Tuesday night we managed to pull Darsky up here for the drinking extravaganza. I took off from work a little early and he met us at our place with beer in hand. As soon as he walked in the door we almost instantly set up a game of Bonedoneskis.

Unfortunately luck was on Darsky's side tonight, as he ended up taking a decent amount off of both me and the birthday boy. We eventually switched to PLO to get rid of some of the luck factor, where I managed to gain back a lot of my stack for a short amount of time before I missed a couple of huge draws. Towards the end of the game Steph and her friend Chelsea showed up and we decided to 3-way flip for the rest of my dwindling stack. I flopped huge, but Joe hit turn and river to swipe my cash and it was time for the night to begin.

We went downtown for dinner with the girls, where Joe enjoyed his first legal public beer at a local microbrewery. We had some decent food, a couple rounds of decent beer, and I footed the bill before we headed over to Q's to play some pool and to enjoy some more drinkage.

Our friend Amanda surprised Joe by coming out from the valley, when he had previously thought she wasn't coming down to celebrate until the weekend. She showed up at Q's and joined in on the birthday fun, but not before arguing with the waitress about what a Black Russian was. For the record, according to Wikipedia:

The Black Russian is a cocktail of vodka and coffee liqueur, sometimes topped up with Coca Cola. It is traditionally poured over crushed ice in an old-fashioned glass.

Joe was enjoying his drinking, and let it be known quite a few times that "Dude...this is fuckin fun man...seriously...this is fun..." After we shot pool for a while and lounged around, we decided to head over to a local Irish-pub-in-America, Dargan's. We've had some good times at Dargan's and it never seems to let us down in time of needing fun and drunkeness.

On the way there I had to take the girls back to their car, as they were going back to Ventura to retire for the night. Darsky, Joe, and Amanda all went ahead and enjoyed some Irish car bombs without me (those bastards), and when I returned the drinking continued. A few rounds of Green Label and beer made for a good time, some fun/awkward/interesting conversation, and of course more of Joe's increasingly drunken admittance that yes, this was indeed, fun.

I took the crew through Jack in the Box on the way home and as soon as we walked in the door we all started hungrily tearing through the wonderfully delicious yet bodily harmful food. We popped on Bob Saget's standup and I quit about halfway through, thanks to having to work only hours later.

Wednesday at work went just about how I expected it to, with me feeling like hell and scrounging around...until lunch. At noon I was treated to lunch and multiple rounds of beers at lunch, and it turned out being quite a day as the boss left early to attend to family business and I sat in front of my computer all day plugging away at Excel like I usually do. The plentiful beer at lunch helped me not a give a crap about the rest of the day, and the buzz tied in nicely with the previous night's drinks to send me through the rest of the day in a state of haze and easiness.

On Thursday Joe and I started the drinking way early, and by six o'clock we'd cleaned through another case-worth of beer. We consumed more alcohol before Steph came out, and again we drank the night away. Work the next day was about the laziest Friday one could ask for.

Coming into the week, I knew that Joe's 21st birthday would lead to a continual stream of alcoholic celebration, and I was dead on. The goal of the week was to find that delicate balance of drinking regularly while keeping mind enough to handle yourself at work. I refer to weeks like these (and yes, I've definitely had them before) as tender benders, for it takes a bit of care to pull off smoothly.

As for Friday, the drinking began early and continued as we hit up another bar after dinner. We ran into some fairly odd and interesting people downtown, and managed to pass off a random home-made rap audio CD to a scared yet curious couple. I was then supposed to go down to Ventura for the night to drink with Steph and her roommates, but ended up passing out until about 1 o'clock in the morning.

I had yet to get a good night's sleep since Monday, and it turned me into a walking zombie by Friday. Mike, Amanda, and Joe's brother and sister and their respective girlfriend and boyfriend were coming up that night and Saturday afternoon, but I couldn't hang with them that night. I recharged my batteries with a few hours of impenetrable shuteye and took off late. When I arrived everyone was sleeping, and Steph and I passed out rather quickly.

I drove back up to Santa Barbara on Saturday afternoon, and arrived to a couple stories of the previous night's inebriated horseplay. Once Tina (Joe's sister) and Ben (her boyfriend) arrived, we all headed out to lunch downtown to let the day's festivities of booze begin yet again. We ate at another place on State and had multiple rounds of margaritas and beer, and three of us raced to the bottom of a $25 bucket of alcohol.

We had some good food and again, shared a lot of funny stories and had an all around great time. We hit up the store to load up on a $160 worth of alcohol before returning back to our place to drink the night away. We accomplished our goal.

We ended up playing some N64 and some Halo2 before things really got rowdy. Steph showed up later in the night to join us, and by that time the eight of us were on our way to crazy drunk. We were playing guitar and singing when Steph had let me know she arrived, but there was no parking so she ended up having to park quite a bit aways. No fear...there was eight of us who loved picking people up, and we had a guitar. To the sidewalk!

We all took off in our haze singing loudly while Joe lead the group playing the guitar on the entire walk. On our crazy walk we sang a song about reacharounds, I freestyled a little bit, and by the end of the night Joe had been hurrican-rana'd inside our apartment, we shotgunned almost an entire case of beer, we built a waterbottle trampoline on Sunny's bed, and the pizza delivery guy drank a beer.

It was a blast and an amazing time was had by all. In the morning I made breakfast for everyone while we drank mimosas, and after we watched Grandma's Boy everyone took off. Joe and I spent the rest of Sunday being dead and watching movies while eating Taco Bell. Towards the end of the night we decided to play a Sit N Go marathon on FT, which ended at about 3AM.

As soon as we got up on Monday afternoon we cleaned the entire place, went to lunch, and eventually came back to couch up the rest of the day. Steph came out, we watched another movie, and hit the sack pretty early.

All in all, it was an amazingly fun week and I'm thinking of taking a break from drinking for a few days. It probably won't happen, but it's a thought.

Until next time.

Shortstacking Vegas Pt. III

This is the finale' of Shortstacking Vegas Pt. I and Shortstacking Vegas Pt. II. It's been on my procrastination list forever, so enjoy it more than you usually would.

Decker's first four-of-a-kind of the night

With spirits high (and flowing), and Decker just having turned his $20 into $550, the crew was ready for the night ahead. Although we had just eaten hours earlier, the five of us figured we'd uphold our obligations to ditch the Nugget and join some family over at the Mirage's buffet since 1)we didn't have to pay for it and 2)we were going to be down on the Strip for the rest of the night anyways.

We met up, nibbled on a few things so as not to be rude, and the 21crowd ordered a slew of drinks to keep us entertained as we chatted with family and friends for the birthday celebration. A short while later Brando called and said he was parking and would be in soon. We downed the rest of our drinks, said goodbye to the family, and we were off to enjoy the night.

Brando was waiting for us outside the cafe, and the first order of business was obviously...DRINKS! Mitch, him, and I headed to a bar in the Mirage while the rest of the guys went to find some video poker machines. Brando took care of the tab (thanks again man) and without an open table we took back to the casino floor.

We found Decker (the apparent video poker kind of the weekend) pluggin away at a quarter video poker machine with a fist full of twenties in one hand, a drink in the other, and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Mitch and I both watched as Brando peeled a hundo out of his pocket and sat next to Decker.

At this point, being the last night in this Vegas go-around, Mitch and I had obviously run out of money. We decided to head to the ATM (one time!) and we hit gold on the 100% no-risk machine as a few hundos poured out for the each of us. When we returned to the video machines Decker and Brando were about to negotiate a deal for a race to the next 4-of-a-kind. An amount was agreed upon and they were off.

Decker, hot off of his $500+ hit at the quarter VP machines at the Nugget was nonchalantly randomizing his betting amounts and draw times, while Brando took the more aggressive, more optimal approach by max betting every draw and doing so as fastly as possible. Obviously with more credits returned on the big hands and more hands/hr than Decker, Brando looked like the favorite to win.

On this night, however, optimal play would not come into consideration in Brando's play. After ripping out a second hundo and continuing his timely play, he couldn't capitalize. A few minutes later Decker raised his hands in victory as four sixes came drawing to a halt in front of Brando's face. Defeated and distraught, Brando paid his debt and, visibly shaken ;), collected his remaining funds from the machine. This wouldn't be Decker's last quads of the night...

We decided to roam the Mirage for a bit and Mitch and I ended up watching Brando go on a short craps heater before he gave it back to even (or a small profit...I don't remember). After that we found ourselves a nice little single-deck blackjack table, which I managed to pick up $300 to start closing myself in on even for the trip.

I made a dangerous move when I stopped by the craps table before I even cashed in my winnings, and ended up escaping with a minimal $100 loss after a few minutes of play. I exchanged my chips at the cage, and on the way out Brando obviously had to hit up a few more slots. He tried a random one first and then a Harley Davidson one, both of which treated him like slime. It was time to go somewhere else.

After we milled around for a few more minutes, we decided to head over to the Venetian. The other guys had headed over a while earlier, and we were on our own to scout them out...but not before Brando found another slot machine once we got inside. This time it was a Wheel of Fortune slot.

After multiple spins and multiple failures, I came up with the idea of the Triple Thread Slot Pull. It's a move that requires two players, and uses a combination shot of hitting the Max Bet button, the Spin button, and the lever. With one player using one hand for either button, and one offset player on the right-hand side pulling the lever, it's sure to confuse any slot machine and it's caretakers. In my mind it was an unconsidered move that guaranteed a win. In reality, it was useless. But it still looked badass, and I have strong feelings that this move will work wonders on a single pull one day...

In this example, Brando was the main man while Mitch helped alongside.


After we were carded twice, I jumped on the phone and Decker had said he was at the bar. Of course with Vegas bars come Vegas video poker machines. Imagine my surprise when we turned around to find Decker occupying another seat, steadily staring down at the machine with cash and drink in hand. We all ordered drinks and started intently watching Decker try for his third four-of-a-kind on the day. Brando popped in another bill as he ordered a drink, while Decker gave both Mitch and myself cash to play beside him.

About 20 minutes after I sat down, I ended up pulling four Aces on Decker's dime. We all shouted in celebration. I was completely speechless at the fact that in a matter of six hours, we'd managed to hit three four-of-a-kinds, while my only previous time playing video poker in Vegas had me hitting a royal flush on the first and only draw I'd take during that trip.

Decker scurried off to the bathroom to relieve himself of his day's current drinking tally, while Brando, Mitch, and myself stayed seated to keep plugging away at the video poker machines. As I was facing Brando and talking, Mitch began to tap on my shoulder repeatedly. I looked over at his machine (again, on Decker's dollars) and saw an unbelievable sight: another four-of-a-kind, this time it was 7's. We waited for Decker to come back before we all laughed hysterically at the ultimate luck held within our monies, and cashed out after ordering another round.

Brando and I headed to the Venetian's poker room to see if we could cause some drunken havoc at a $2-4 game, but the lowest game going was $4-8 and it just didn't have the inviting feel that a lower game would have at that point. Even though we'd been drinking the day through, I was not even buzzed and felt very disappointed. I hadn't slept the previous night, so I assume that my body trying to keep itself awake was doing a big part to keep me un-drunk, but it was disheartening nonetheless. I wanted to be drunk, but I hoped to get there by sitting at the lowest limit poker table possible and drinking round after round while wildly flinging chips. This wasn't the game for it though, so we did what any sensible gamblers would do, we hit the blackjack tables again.

We took up Mitch and Decker as we scoured the casino floor while looking for a fun looking table. We found one and Mitch took the seat. He went through what little money he had withdrawn, and Decker handed him a bit from his victory stash. I ended up grabbing a seat next to Mitch after about a shoe and a half, and after a few more shoes I found myself up another $200 on the night after giving Mitch $100 to stay in the game with me. I was almost even!

We got up and strolled the Venetian until we came across our other two very drunk friends making fools of themselves in front of a couple attractive Vegas nighties. Jason had managed to acquire an electro-shock massage pad at a gift shop somewhere, and had decided that the middle of the Venetian was a good place to use it. They had attached it to his chest, and with a drunken 21-year-old on the controller's end, Jason was in for quite a ride. He was shocked pretty hard for quite a while as the rest of us were on the floor laughing hysterically. The entertainment lasted for a few minutes and then Brando took off for the night.

The five of us then decided to head down to the MGM. On our long walk, we managed to lose Jason to the cops twice, ran into two cute weed-selling modern day hippie chicks, and low and behold we ran into a group of chicks that we knew from back home. If there's anything more disappointing about a Vegas trip, it's randomly running into a group of chicks that you already know during a random drunken walk down the strip. Add to this the fact that I had yet to BECOME drunk, and I was in a bit of a bitter mood. The girls wanted to go to McDonald's....so we left them there and took off back on our marry way.

Before we hit the MGM we came upon a wondrous sight, the Paris. The lights had attracted us and in we went. We looked for an open bar, but there was none. We all ended up in the walkway to Bally's before Jason got pulled in by the temptation of loud club music and cute promoter chicks that were standing outside. He drunkenly, laughingly tried to resist the moans and puppy-dog faces of the half-naked girls, but they pulled him in and the four of us followed suit to make sure he didn't get into any trouble.

Once inside the drinking continued, and after I bought a round of Kamikazes for the guys, and three shots of the same for myself, I felt drunk for the first time during the trip. I had accomplished my goal! We decided to carry on and keep trying to make it to the MGM Grand, but we hadn't gotten half that far before we found ourselves on the bridge of the New York New York having a loud drunken conversation.

I ended up fielding a phone call that lead me inside, and when I was finished I saw that the rest of the crew had followed me in to locate me and get me off of the phone. I ended up finding another single-deck blackjack shoe, and having lost to NYNY every time I've been to Vegas, I pulled out $300 to make sure it wouldn't happen again. Since I had yet to come even on the trip, the alcohol obviously played a big role in this blackjack round, but as drunk as I was I was still determined.

I played through a few shoes while I slurringly tried to explain to the group of friends that stopped by to play how to play correct strategy. Of course when they hit their 16's and 14's and busted, and doubled down their 11's against the dealer's 5 and they lost, they ended up getting hard headed with me and playing horribly on their own and losing anyways. As for me, I saw that I was up another $300 and, making a point to have a theme of winning for the night, decided to call it quits sensing that I was too gone to play well for any longer.

We all wandered around NYNY for a little bit longer before realizing that it was early the next morning and that after an entire night of drinking, gambling, walking, and all around fun, it was time to retire. We hailed a cab to take us back to the Nugget, and Mitch and I decided to take off to avoid the Sunday leaving-Las Vegas traffic. I passed out after another 48-hour sleepless stretch and Mitch drove home.

We had both taken to Vegas with no cash and only intention of appeasing Casey and his birthday well-wishes, and we both ended up having a blast. I broke even after spending $200 and giving $100 for gambling friends, Mitch only lost a little bit, and I was even able to kick down a little bit along with Decker to make sure everyone had a great time.

I can only hope that next time I go back, I'll have the same fun. And if we don't get a Bonedoneskis game goin with Brando soon, my head's gonna explode.

Until next time.

Same Ole' Same Ole'

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. ~William James

If I told you that Shortstacking Vegas Pt. III would be up today, would you believe me?

One Time

Shortstacking Vegas Pt III will be up on Friday

For right now, it's 11:57 PM and I'm eating chocolate cake and running updates to the work database via my laptop. I'm tired, so I'll pass out soon and I really don't feel like finishing up Pt III right now.

I'm planning on throwing in a video of Mitch and Brando' s triple thread slot pull once I load it onto my Photobucket. It'll be amazing.

Until next time.

The Switch: It Is On

Last Thursday something happened out of nowhere that had me tripping hard. As I was dealing with the daily boredom of work, I was taking one of my many internet-browsing breaks and I saw that I had received a message from an old friend:


Ok so I'm kinda flippin out right now because I was totally just talking about you tonight and I randomly clicked on XXX's page who was my old roommate and I found your page! I miss you! We should be friends again and talk online all the time like we used to!! Um I hope you remember me and I'm not just blabbing on like a crazy person!

stephanie

This girl is a friend of an old ex-girlfriend of mine from my sophomore year of high school, and from the time I met her I've always had a huge thing for her. When I was with my ex at the time(it was a short, worthless relationship), I'd always look forward to hanging out with this Stephanie more than my actual girlfriend.

That may sound mean, in fact it probably sounds pretty messed up from any girl's point of view. But the fact is that my relationship with the other girl was purely physical. She was an overdramatic valleygirl who lived in Ventura, whose parents took care of her 110%, and who had no life ambition. She had blonde hair, but could never get it blonde enough, even with all the dying and bleaching she seemed to do on a weekly basis. All she wanted to do was have sex, I despised her attitude, and for the most part found her personality to be unbearable most of the time.

Steph was different. She was always spunky, she always had a huge beautiful smile on her face, she was always laughing and enjoying things, and when things got her down she rarely let them get to her. To top it off, she was as gorgeous as anyone I've ever seen. She hated drama, she just wanted to enjoy life and have a good time.

Since I had broken up with my ex, I haven't talked to anyone from that group. One thing I'd always missed, though, was Stephanie. We talked quite a bit during my relationship with the blonde, and for a tiny while afterwards online. Unfortunately the talking stopped one day.

From that point on I often wondered what she doing and how she was, remembering just how much a breath of fresh air she always was. She was cute and had a personality that could lift you off the ground if you ever felt tackled by life. There were quite a few days over the five years that I was pissed that I had let her out of my life completely because of that fact.

A few months ago I had run across herSpace but ended up not sending her a message. I was hesitant to approach her again, as it had been so long and I didn't really know quite how to go about it. On Thursday, I ended up getting the above message and was completely shocked.

I instantly messaged her back, and we talked back and forth through messages and IM's until early Friday morning (I know, technology...). I had told her how I felt about her back in the day, and she said that she had mirrored feelings, although I would have never known about it because when "one of my friends was dating someone," she said, "I turn the switch off."

That phrase made me laugh, and I was actually quite giddy at the fact that she had been interested all those years ago. We talked for a bit more the next morning before I decided to go see her that Friday night.

She let me know that her and "the girls" would be hanging out at a certain nightspot, so I headed out to Ventura to hang out with Mitch and Brando (Ventura Brando) for a little bit before I headed out. I was a bit nervous, as I'd know some of the people there but only as my ex-gf's friends, most of whom presumably would rather not see me after the extremely over-emotional (on her side ONLY) breakup. Not only that, but it was my first time being old enough to drink on Main St. in Ventura since I left after high school.

I eventually took off for downtown, found the place, and saw her standing with a few people on the back patio. I walked out and was greeted with a wide-eyed, freaked out stare from Steph, as well as a completely what-the-hell-do-I-do stutter from my ex.

"Uuuhhh....hi. What...are you...doing here?" She looked more dumbfounded than confused.

I shot a glance over at Stephanie again and she still had the same deer-in-the-headlights confusion in her eyes. "Just hangin' out. How you guys doin?"

"Good....so like. Uuuhhh....wow. So strange to see you here. Didn't you move?"

"Yeah I'm up in Santa Barbara now."

"So like, who are you here with?"

I paused for a second, laughing in my head at the idea that Steph had clearly "forgot" to mention anything to my ex, and was definitely not ready to deal with any questions at this point. I was about to find a really retarded and nonsensical response until the deer spoke up.

"Heeeeee's...with us!"

My ex snapped her head to the side towards Stephanie. "What?"

"I invited him..."

At that point it was clear that I needed to leave for a second. "I'm gonna head to the bar, I'll be right back."

I ordered a shot and a drink, pondering what was about to happen if I went back outside. I quickly downed my shot and briefly thought about going to hang back out with the guys before I finally took a breath and went outside to deal with the drama that was about to ensue. When I made it back outside, they had found a table and I took a seat next to Steph, abandoning the empty one next to my ex.

Throughout the rest of the night, things actually became less and less awkward. A few people recognized me and were taken back at first, but only for a few seconds. My ex seemed a bit frustrated at my interaction with my new found flirting partner, but I couldn't have cared less. A few people met me for the first time, and it ended up being a pretty fun time.

That night I ended up staying with Stephanie, and we ended up spending the night with each other Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. The weekend has given us a lot of time to get to know each other, yet the weird part is after five years we're even more comfortable with each other than we were before, and we're obviously much closer than ever. I asked her, and the switch from before was definitely turned on.

Even though it's only been a few days since we've been talking again, I couldn't be happier than when she's around. I'll never say that her eyes are "pretty", mainly because that means nothing nowadays, but when I look in her eyes there's more happening than I can describe. Her personality is as beautiful as she is on the outside, and that speaks volumes for a person, especially in the superficial world we live in.

On top of that, even though I have a pretty good life and a good family, I've always felt I was missing something, and even in past relationships I knew I was being naive when I said I felt whole. I didn't know what "whole" meant back then. Over the years I've dealt with being single, depression, work, giving up on school and all emotion involved with that, and overcoming my past in order to be happy with the now. Lately I've been doing great emotionally, and have felt happy with myself. But there's no doubt that since I've matured, I've still been missing that something. She makes me feel like I've found it.

If this seems a bit mushy towards the end, it's cuz what I'm feeling now IS mushy. But after quite some time of not knowing what I was looking for, I found it anyways thanks to the most unlikely situation.

I was gonna update Shortstacking Vegas Pt. III this weekend, but due to the described events, I didn't get around to it. I'm HOPING to have it up by tomorrow.

Also, over the past week and a half I've tripled my online "bankroll" by playing $1-2, and taking a couple shots at $2-4 and $3-6. If anything exciting happens with that, I might post about it, although it might be a while before I find anything poker worthy to write about.

Until next time.

Stuck in a Post-Apocolyptic Hell

There's a fire burning behind the mountains of Santa Barbara a few miles away, and for the past three weeks or so we've had on and off ash downpours. Usually it's a slight sprinkly over night, and you can't really notice it until you go to your car in the morning and there's a very fine layer of ash on your vehicle.

About two weeks ago it was literally raining a heavy downpour of ash when the wind shifted direction for a day and blew the flame and smoke directly into town. There was a brief health warning issued for the city a while ago, but again, as wind changed direction it was just as quickly dismissed.

For the past couple days there's been a slightly noticeable increase in ash coverage, and it didn't look like it was going to stop coming into the end of the week. This morning I awoke to a pretty awesome sight.

Usually in the morning the sunlight peeks through the bottom six inches of my barely pulled blinds, and I can see the light coming in around the edges of my bedroom's doorframe from the hallway. This morning was different. I didn't catch that slice of light under my blinds, nor did I see the small glow around my door. There was no birds chirping outside as usual, and it felt like it was the middle of the night.

I went through my morning routine and got ready to head out the door to work before I even noticed anything about the sky. When I opened the front door, however, I was blasted full body by a blanket of red atmosphere. The entire sky seemed like it was on fire, though it was just the color of the fire bouncing off of the mixture of smoke and morning grog.

I already had my sunglasses on so it wasn't too much of an extreme situation, but it couldn't have been healthy to look directly upwards today. It resembled the setting put out by all the movies ever done about travels to Mars, with a reddish/orange tint all over everything in the range of visible sunlight.

Once I got into the office, my eyes seemed to be overcorrecting my vision, as I was quickly eyewashed with a room full of blueish tint. I closed all the blinds in the office, yet the orange/red light was visible from pretty much any open crease for the majority of the day. By the end of the work day the warm-colored overhead seemed to dissipate a bit, and I was able to come home to a bit of regularity.

Hopefully when I awake tomorrow I'll be able to move freely and breathe without hassle. The fire department is saying that September 7th is the expected full containment date. If I have to live in this post-nuclear wasteland for much longer, I will be pissed. Trust me.

Until next time.

Drinking, Gambling...Living

This weekend was another one filled with drinking and gambling, and of course the now weekly Sunday Taco Bell trip. None of these things are good or healthy for me but they're the only things I'd ever want to do. Luckily, there are friends around me who feel the same way.

I started Thursday with an e-mail from an online betting site that they'd give me $10 for free just to log in, since they've been pestering me to make a deposit and I've yet to do so. I checked it out and it seemed legit, and sure enough as soon as I signed in I got $10 for free no strings attached. I had to put it in play, and just as soon as I got it I bet it on a preseason NFL game, which is about as much of a senseless gamble as anyone could ever think of.

Of course I won it, and put it back on another game the next day and promptly lost, albeit to a small margin. I'm thinking about taking some time off from casino gambling, but maybe betting the NFL football season. I probably shouldn't do either, but like I said...oh well.

On Thursday Darsky had invited me down to L.A. to go barhopping after work on Friday. I had some stuff to take care of and a lot to clean up around the apartment since I wasn't going to be home for the majority of Saturday, and although I went all day Friday telling myself I was going to go anyways, I ended up staying in Santa Barbara. Chores are chores and they gotta get done! Sorry Darsk.

I didn't want to stay inside all night though, so I called Mitch and told him to make his way out at around 11. I finished up most of the stuff I needed to and as I finished up a little web surfing Mitch, Carlos, and John all showed up. We headed to Dargan's and quickly got to drinking, considering we only had 2 hours left before last call.

My efforts to save money have been cut short this week, solely from going downtown and drinking with people. My generosity in the matter has taken its toll before, however on Friday night it was Carlos that was gonna take the gold medal for bar tab offerings. I took up $50 for our first round of shots and beers, while Carlos covered $150 for the rest of the night after that. If you can do the math, you'll figure out how much we had to drink.

A while later, after sobering up quite a bit, we took a drive to Chumash where we lost money and got aggravated at our previously fearless alcohol provider for playing blackjack like an idiot. Again, my money-saving efforts were cut short by my problematic love for gambling. I lost a little bit, got pissed that I was even there, and told the guys that we were goin home.

We all eventually crash at around 7:30AM, and we chalked up another successful night of fun time livin.

I woke up on Saturday at about 10AM for a little bit, and then again at about 11:30. I drudged my way over to the couch, and made a little bit playin small stakes on Full Tilt for about an hour before I took a shower and got ready to head out to the valley for lunch with my dad and Paul's game.

Mitch was up for the game and met us out there. Kirk had driven into town from 29 Palms, and although he was gonna be there this time to have our old crew together, Darsky would not be staying to play. He did end up dropping by, but had previous plans for the night.

This was a huge deal, as Darsky and I have been friendly vying for the top spot in points in our home game's leaderboard. Thanks to a soft start to the year, I fell into the middle of the pack fast. However, with a rally over the last two months I've been able to close in on Dar.

Two games ago I was able to come to within one point of the bastard. Last game I was absent and he widened his lead to four points. This time around, he was the one not attending and I had a chance to hopefully overtake him. By the end of the night, I was to have at least closed into one point of him, if not overtake him, or else I would be one sad dude.

As I walked in and stared at the point board, I admired his name atop the list but knew it wouldn't last long! I geared up, taking a 3rd and a 6th, bringing in 4 points and a tie game. It wasn't a total overtake, but a tie was okay with me at the end of the night.

As of today, with a level ground, we have $100 bet on who finishes the year with the most points. As of right now, IT'S ON.

Today was a weird Sunday. I didn't really do much except for laundry, but it's been a melancholy afternoon for the most part. Usually on Sundays, the thought of Monday at the office doesn't bother me. In the past Vegas, LA, drinking over long weekends, etc have never made me feel like going back to work would be a drudge, but for some reason I'm really dreading going back tomorrow.

I'm sure I'll be alright, but dammit work is starting to get super uncomfortable...

Until next time.

Coming Soon: Shortstacking Vegas Pt. III

Stay tuned

Camera phone from car on Tropicana Blvd

Lounging

For the past couple days work's been pretty mentally busy, and I've been doing a lot of lounging. Last week I ordered a slew of cheap yet wanted DVDs off of Amazon, which included:
-Swingers
-Boiler Room
-The Princess Bride (yessss)
-Three Kings (random, I know).

I spent a couple days hangin out at the apartment and just watching the DVDs and a few recorded movies on DVR. Last weekend I went to see the Bourne Ultimatum, and hopefully I'll get out to see the Simpson's Movie, for good or for bad.

I also ordered Mortal Kombat III and Street Fighter II for my Sega Genesis, and dammit it's sweet. The thing's been sitting in my closet since I moved in, but it was cool to break it out and play some oldies since I don't play video games much any more.

In my opinion some of the graphics and sounds that came from the games back in the SNES and Genesis era were some of the best produced today. Although there's been quite a few versions of the Mortal Kombat series released for modern systems, the MKII and MKIII really can't be beat.

I also ordered the book Comp City, which I've been taking care of a few pages at a time. I've got a couple books on the to-read list, and I'm hopin to get around to those this weekend. Although I spent some time in front of movies/TV last week, I've been trying not to spend too much time on my laptop lately, especially with the beautiful weather/girls/alcohol that's gracing downtown Santa Barbara lately.

There's actually been a fire burning a few miles away over the hill, and for the most part on Friday the sky was raining ash over the entire city. But besides that one day, the weather out here has been amazing and I'm trying to take advantage of it. Don't worry, I'm still pretty pastey white and that might never change, but I'm trying to get out and about as much as I can.

This weekend is Paullywood Park, where I can hopefully take over Darsky's point lead. I probably won't be doing much this weekend, but will try to hit up some more DVD shopping which will hopefully include the "300" DVD.

Shortstacking Vegas Pt. III will be posted soon, and as soon as I feel like staying inside I'll be writing up much more.

Until next time.

ESPN X-Games 13

Oh

My

God

Shortstacking Vegas Pt. II

It was 6:00 A.M. and Casey, the birthday boy, was dead tired. After his first full night of legal drinking in Vegas, he looked like he was about to pass out. Mitch and I went to put our stuff in the room and tried to rally the falling troops, as we had just arrived two hours earlier and wanted to get our money in play.

It looked like we were gonna be on our own, but we ended up getting Decker and Jason to come downstairs with us. Casey said he was gonna take a shower and meet us down on the floor. Yeah, whatever.

Although both 21 (recently), neither Decker nor J had yet to play in Vegas. Luckily we were in $5, and, being one of the more upkept downtown casinos, the Nugget had its fair share of cheap tables open. Among the three other L.V. newbies on this trip, Mitch and I were seen as the consummate Vegas "professionals", although we haven't really experienced anything above a lowroller time in Vegas to date. But as such, we were determined to at least teach the guys how to play blackjack as close to basic strategy as possible.

Coming into this weekend, Mitch brought only brought $100 (I picked him up last second, aware that he had no money) and I only had $300. Every time previous to this trip, the main focus was poker. I brought enough to grind and when it went bad I was able to grab a stake.

This time I was sick of poker. I hadn't been winning for months, and when I left Santa Barbara I knew that the small amount I brought was going straight to the house games. I wanted to have fun and forget about life for the weekend. I had yet to play any house games in Vegas besides blackjack, and was for sure gonna splash around as much as my little bankroll would allow for the weekend.

We headed to the bar for some drinks and quickly found one of many open $5 blackjack tables. Operating on a nonexistent bankroll put us in a must-win situation right off the bat, and Casey sweated us as he tried to learn the ropes. We played through one break-even shoe before our happy-go-lucky dealer got rudely exited by some asshole dealer who ended up being the least fun person I have ever met at a casino, anywhere.

He busted us quickly, made fun of us when we lost a hand, and basically made short work of our small cash. Decker had sat out, but Jason bought in and played with us. Of course, as we tried to teach him the game we made him do basic moves (doubling 11 against a 5, splitting 7's against a 6), and as it goes when you're trying to teach someone a gambling game, he lost most of his hands and convinced himself that he wasn't going to listen to us anymore.

Mitch was already done for the weekend, but we weren't concerned. Mitch wouldn't be able to go for more than five hours in Vegas without cash, he'd find a way to get some. The L.V.A. (Las Vegas Amateurs) ended up going upstairs to pass out while Mitch and I wondered around, soaking in the lights from the previous night that we missed.

I ended up at a roulette wheel with $20 that I had promised to play for someone back home. I played minimum bet on red five times straight and hit it every single time. I switched to playing a full min-bet on a single spot, hoping for the big hit and cashout. I played 23 every time while Mitch was talking in my ear.

"Play 10."

"No."

13

"Play 10."

"No."

25

"Play 10."

"...No."

7

"Play 10."

"No."

10

"...See I told you idiot."

I ran through the rest of the redbirds I ran up at the table and as we were walking away Decker appeared out of nowhere, apparently too enthralled to sleep. He wanted to take a shot at blackjack and I was willing to go dump another hundo to get this kid in the game.

It turned out that he, being recently unemployed, was actually playing on free money by a member of the birthday party just so he could go on the trip. It would make for fun times later in the trip.

I ended up busting my second buyin and he picked up after playing the dealer heads up for a bit. We headed back to the room, and I realized that it was still only 7:30 A.M. We had only been in Vegas for four hours, and despite having not slept for 24 hours at that point, I was sure as hell not wanting to sleep. Adding on to the fact that five of us were sharing a free two-bed standard room, I made up my mind that I was headin down to the Strip.

John was workin his first down of the morning at 10A.M. at Planet Hollywood, so I figured I'd jump in a $1-2NL game and wait it out. I parked at Caesar's and headed inside to see if there was any action going on, since there's usually quite a lot of $1-2 goin on. The room was dead aside from a $2-5NL and a $10-20NL, both of which I obviously couldn't jump in.

I took a look across across the street, and decided to just walk across to PH. I thought it would be an alright stroll at 7:30 A.M., but it was Hades outside and my heel was killing me from a drunken night the weekend before. The sidewalk was already packed with people who think waking up before 5:00 P.M. in Vegas is a good idea, and after weaving my way through the masses I finally made it.

There was only one game going, and coincidentally it was a $1-2NL game. I sat it and played dead for a couple hours till John showed up. As it turned out, PH's morning $60 tournament was starting the same time, and John was dealing it. I bought in and ended up playing for a couple hours before bubbling my KK to an A4.

I booked it back to the Nugget, eager to see what everyone else was doing. They were supposed to have gotten up to go to a planned breakfast at 10, but I knew that wasn't gonna happen. I walked in and found the other guys passed out on the beds and floor exactly where they were when I left. Everyone but Broke Mitch woke up and cleaned up and we were off to the buffet.

We took the escalator upstairs and quickly found that our "waitress" was planning to kill someone before the day's end. We had some fun, ate some cheap food, and started drinking. The company I was in the presence of this trip out had me crackin up the whole time. I've known these guys for a long time now and, due to my living situation, I don't get to hang out with them much anymore. Needless to say, the time spent gambling and drinking with these guys was awesomely hilarious.

After the buffet Decker and I headed to the bar for video poker and free booze. We made quick friends with the bartender. I threw a $20 in and played quarters while Decker did the same with his free money. As I was recounting the story of my royal flush on the previous trip at Caesar's sportsbook bar, I found myself watching as Decker pulled quad Aces for $500.

All of a sudden he'd turned his free money into even more free money, and it was about to turn the whole night around. He quickly threw me money to keep pluggin away, as well as givin the bartender $20. The $4 Red Bulls turned into free Red Bull and vodkas, and our drinks were instantly ten times stronger than they were for the past half an hour.

We called down the other three amigos and Decker tossed them all cash to play as well. Our two quiet seats turned into a five-machine row of drinking and hollerin and hootin. We all played for a bit before cashin out to go meet up with another group at the Mirage. It was about to be the funnest night I'd had in Vegas yet.

Interlude

I have been neglecting this blog as of late, and even after repeated promises and attempts to hammer away at this thing, I still haven't caught up. I've been getting more hits by the day from referrals and links. Hell, I even made it on to Dr. Pauly's link list (I still don't know how this got pulled off), yet I can't even come close to just keeping this thing alive for more than a week at a time.

Part of the reason that it hasn't been awoken recently is that right when I was gearing up to start writing again I took a vacation to New York. After that I was lazy for a week and then I was off to Vegas, where I spent another three days wide awake and rushing on the sounds of slots and chips and the buzz of alcohol, gambling, and all-you-can-eat tit-glistening.

Since I've been back to reality I've been mindlessly plugging away at the office, dreaming of the leisure time I had in N.Y. and the dazed days I spent in Sin City. Writing hasn't really been on my mind...but then again nothing really has.

I'm coming out of my mindfuck right now, though, and thanks to the number of experiences I've had over the past few weeks I have a lot of material worth writing about. I'll try to keep it entertaining, just stick around and leave a comment from time to time to let me know what you guys think.

GG CNN

"Remember folks, the market moves both ways." -CNN financial consultant, referring to the stock market on 07/30/07.

Thanks, Tim.


And I will update before the day is done. I've been getting a lot of hits and referrals, so I feel bad that I haven't been writing. Shortstacking Vegas Pt.II will be up by tonight. No more fuckin around.

Shortstacking Vegas Pt. I

This weekend was the funnest time I've had in Vegas since I've been legal to go, and coincidentally it was with the smallest amount of cash I've yet to go with. I wasn't even planning on going on this trip because, despite not paying for food or alcohol on the entire trip to New York, I still managed to spend over $1,000 on the entire 10 days.

Originally when the idea of this Vegas trip had been introduced six months ago, Casey had called and told me that he was having his birthday in Vegas and that there were going to be a bunch of people and that I needed to go to celebrate his 21st. I was obviously instantly in for another trip to the city that never sleeps, and that was that. Fast forward to recent days, where that same city has taken me for thousands while I sit here getting fat and grinding out a meager living from behind a desk, and all of a sudden spending more money in Vegas seems like a nightmare.

Of course that thought never lingers long in my mind no matter what amount of money I have, so on Friday night I took off to Vegas with $400 in my pocket. Previously I've lost too much and spent too much in a day to think anything other than that going to Vegas for a weekend with $400 was stupid.

On my previous visits, I had it in my mind that I would just player poker and nothing else. Just win at poker, build a roll, live like a legend, and come home with grandiose stories of $1,000 dinners and amazing suites, sharing the extremities given only to the highrollers and superstars.

Yeah right.

For the past trips this year I've lost and won and poker, I've defected to the blackjack table after every session, and I've gotten smoked for every dime I've had every time I've gone. Grinding the tables and living the high life is what I've come to love and respect, yet I don't know why since I haven't been able to experience anything close to it yet. This weekend was about more than that, though.

After returning from New York, I was almost positive that I wouldn't make it out for this vacation a week later. I had spent too much too recently and was extremely sour at gambling for the dirty ride it's given me since my own birthday in December. Adding in the fact that I'm on such a strict financial plan right now, it was looking like a definite no-go.

But on Friday morning I found out that pretty much everyone bailed at the last second. Casey's been my best friend since I was three years old, and I knew I couldn't let him go with no friends by his side. I rallied Mitch (the ultimate Vegas friend), and although he couldn't get any cash together at the last second, we took off to Vegas Friday night.

Our good friend Decker was there when we showed up, and another friend had flown in last second as well. With five guys and a horribly small amount of gambling money, it was gonna be difficult to survive the weekend, but we were determined to make it happen.

We arrived at about 2PM and immediately hit up Buffalo Wild Wings. For some reason, despite all the amazing places to eat in Vegas, I've made it a personal mission to eat at BWW every time I'm there. I've given up on the Rainforest Cafe thing, so I guess this will forever take it's place. I love nothing more than a great meal, whether I'm paying $100 or cooking it myself, but for no reason at all I just have to eat crappy and/or junky food on a semi-regular basis. If anyone knows why I do this, let me know cuz I'd like to stop being retarded.

Anyways...after BWW we got back to the hotel room at the Nugget and decided that if we had any chance at staying alive for the rest of the weekend, we'd need to grind our pennies into dollars at the $5 tables downtown. What was about to take place in the next two days was the funnest time I've had yet in Vegas. Stay tuned tomorrow for a more exciting Pt. II.

Until next time.

Please to Be a Placeholder

Photo courtesy of Declan McCullagh Photography

Writing Vegas TR, it will be up later today so make sure to check back. I'm back baby!

The Good, The Bad, and the Lazy Blogger

The bad news is I haven't updated my blog all week, even though I promised I would and I have about a year's worth of writing material locked away in this noggin of mine.

The good news is I'm headin out to Vegas for a SMMMALLLL trip for a friend's birthday.

The bad news is I'll be missing Paul's game and a chance to overtake Darsky on the points leaderboard.

The good news is I might turn $100 into $100million this weekend (or at least $1,000...I've done it before).

The bad news is I don't feel like driving.

Hopefully when I get home I'll be able to update this thing. There should be some decent reading coming from my way when I get back on my writing feet.

Until next time.

PS - The lazy blogger is me.

Back to the Daily Grind

After a 10-day vacation from the office and a trip to New York, I'm back to the daily grind. Unfortunately this grind is of the office variety, not the poker table. Good news was I had money waiting for me when I came back, which is needed and welcomed, and I have much to tell coming up in this little blog of mine.

For right now I'm getting back into the daily doldrums of living the 9-5 life, but that's not always a bad thing. The more and more I work, the more and more I appreciate it. That'll change in the future I'm sure of it, but for right now I'll take comfort in security.

I won't get a chance to write today, but stay tuned tomorrow and for a while to come. I have stories and pictures and fun times ahead, so make sure to keep an eye on Sitting the Apple. There may even be some poker involved.......weird, I know.......

Until tomorrow.

A Sunday Post?

I was going to try to write last Sunday but this is as far as I got:
"Since I woke up early today (noon) and since I haven't posted since Monday, I figured today would be a good day to post. We'll see how well my Sunday writing fingers work."


Being as how I neglect this blog enough, it's time I put forth some effort and update! I neglected to follow through last Sunday, so today will be a day of redemption.

Rejecting my desire to hit up the Warped Tour while it was in town yesterday, I found myself driving out to Simi to hit up Paullywood Park, our regular tournament held every three weeks. Our usual night at Paullywood Park consists of two $30 tournaments, each with anywhere from 22-28 players. Every third meetup we switch to one $20 rebuy+addon tournament, which is usually filled with the same amount of players but which turns out almost three times the prize pool.

This year we started with a point leaderboard for our gang, with points being awarded for a designated amount of top finishers determined by the number of entrants per tourney. Our 18 tournament series culminates with a $50 buy-in finale' extravaganza, where every point will be worth an extra amount of chips added to the person's respective starting stack. The final tournament will also be juiced by an additional fund that we pay towards for every tournament.

Overall it's a fun atmosphere with friends and family that we all know, and who all try to play the game. They're bad, but they try (for the most part). The only thing that I don't enjoy all the way about Paullywood Park is that I have to deal full time while I'm playing. I love dealing as much as I do playing, but doing both is a great pain in the ass and not something that I look forward to. With that being said, it's still a fun game.

Going into last night Darsky was atop the leaderboard and ahead of me (tied for second place) by six points. He wasn't going to be attending this weekend, which meant it was my chance to catch up to him. However, this weekend was the $20R+A, which meant there was only one tournament and only five points available to capture, which was first place. If I could get that first place prize, I'd get one of the more juiced up prize pools and I could close to within one point of Darsky.

I was fully expecting the regular 22-28 player turnout for this tournament, but when I showed up I got news that there would only be about 16 players. I wasn't too sure of why there was such a small attendance this time around, but whatever the case was it only meant one thing to me: fewer people to get in my way to chase Darsky's points!

I started off playing my usual aggressive game, and was quickly ahead of the field. I picked up all the dead pots from the weak players, and by the end of the rebuy period I was chipleader having only used my original buyin. I opted to buy the add-on to keep my advantage as big as possible, considering that I had to deal full time while playing, which tends to keep me off my %100 game.

I ended up playing chip leader for most of the tournament, although the structure starts to get pretty fast after the 300-600 level since Paul wrote his structure to skip the 400-800 and jump straight to 500-1000, 1000-2000, 1500-3000, etc. Some casino tournies skip these levels, but with only a 2000 starting stack it can start to hurt your stack in a hurry.

I was able to keep afloat as a bare chipleader with around 16,000, while my friend Mitch was second in chips with 13,000 when this hand came up.

Blinds: 300-600
Mitch has 13,000 in chips
Hero has 16,000 in chips
Hero is on the Button

Hero is dealt [6s 7s]
This is one of my favorite hands to play, and I fully intend to play it from the Button as the chipleader if there's no crazy action before it gets to me.
Mitch calls 600
MP2 calls 600
MP3 calls 600
Hero calls 600
I opted to limp the Button here, as one of the limpers and both blinds had around 5,000 in chips. I was completely okay with seeing a flop against five players with this kind of hand, but I really didn't want to have to pump another 4,400+ into this pot heads up preflop because of the escalating blind levels.
SB folds
BB checks

FLOP: [2d 6h 7h]
BB checks
Mitch checks
MP2 checks
MP3 checks
Hero bets 2,200
BB folds
Mitch raises 2,800 to 5,000
MP2 folds
MP3 folds
Sometimes this smells like a set, but Mitch is pretty new to the game and tends to underplay his hands preflop and overplay his hand postflop. I really don't think he's on a flush or straight draw because knowing Mitch he'd usually just call. If I push here he'll probably stack off with an overpair.
Hero raises 10,400 to 16,000 and is all-in
Mitch calls 7,400 and is all-in
3000 is returned to Hero

Mitch shows [Qc Qd]
Hero shows [6s 7s]

TURN: [2d 6h 7h][9s]

RIVER: [2d 6h 7h][9s][Ad]

Mitch has a pair of Queens
Hero has two pair, sixes and sevens and wins the pot (28,100)



That put me out to the largest chiplead of the tournament as I watched the shortstacks battle it out. I ended up taking out two more and I ended up HU after the now second place in chips took out two more. We started heads up with me having about a 2:1 chiplead. We tangled in a few pots until I doubled him up with TP+OESD against his flopped straight.

Five minutes later I doubled him up again on an A-10-3 flop with me holding 10-3 against his A-10. I ended up getting the chiplead back three times before he ended up hitting quads against my straight. As I tried to battle back against his increasing chiplead I ended up getting all the money in with an A-high FD+OESD against his flopped straight once again. I blank blanked and took a disappointing second.

I was really semi-tilted from taking second place after having such a big chiplead and dominating pretty much the whole tournament. I picked at his stack and won quite a few pots thanks to aggression. Unfortunately I kept getting good HU hands against his monsters, and just couldn't come back after losing the chiplead twice.

I took $225 for second, but more importantly I closed the gap on Darsky's point lead. After taking second, I have now cashed/pointed five times in five tourney weekends, so I guess I can always count on being able to at least beat the game at Paullywood Park. As for beating the games that count, well, that'll be something I have to start working on again.

Until next time.