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.