There’s a lot of stuff I sort of want to write about, like the kayaking tour of the Santa Cruz Island caves, or the fact that I’ve started biking to work sometimes, or some poker stuff, or how the Mets suck… but I just don’t have the motivation to actually do it. Or anything else, right now. I’m not even in the mood to play poker.

So, this is all you get. Enjoy.

Or don’t. I don’t expect you will.

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It’s been a while since I’ve written anything interesting. Okay, so I’ve never done that. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything at all, anyway. Sorry about that.

Experimental Film

Anyone who’s a fan of Homestar Runner or TMBG should go check out Experimental Film. It’s a video of a song from their new album.

Baseball

The NL East is pretty sick. The Mets are only a few games over .500, but are only a game out of first. Two teams are tied for first, and two teams are only one game out. They picked up a bat in Hidalgo a little while ago, but I still think they could use another one.

Poker

I haven’t written much about poker lately, because I hadn’t been playing all that much. I’ve been busy with other things a lot, and went on a really bad streak for a while (losing a lot at the cash games, and getting knocked out of sit and gos, always going in as a huge favorite in the hand). So, I stopped playing for a while (a week or so). I finally started again this week, and had good session playing 2/4 at Stars, +$222 in about three hours. I’ve since given around $60 of that back, but it’s still a good feeling.

Wednesday night, after seeing the PLO event from the WSOP on ESPN, I decided to give it a try. I played .10/.25 blinds for a few hours and finished ahead a little bit, but not much. I played again last night, .25/.50 blinds, and made almost $200 at it. I don’t really think I was playing all that well, I was just getting hit over the head with good cards, and people were missing their draws on me. I do think I was getting a better feel for what are good starting cards. I’ll definitely be playing it again.

Also Wednesday night was the first ever (in the US) live televised tournament final table. On the west coast, it was delayed three hours, and I didn’t end up watching it until later, anyway (I love Tivo). It was very well done, after a few problems and sound issues at the beginning. I really liked seeing all the hands, even the ones where everyone just folded to a preflop raise. I don’t know how it did, but I hope it got good ratings, because I want to see more of that.

Bowling

I had been bowling pretty badly lately, until this week. Well, last week my series wasn’t so good, but that was just because of the first game. My second and third games were good. The week before, I think I had a sub-500 series, which I really shouldn’t be doing. Anyway, this week, I threw a 199-191-244, for a 634 series. I was actually throwing it well, and found the pocket (but didn’t always strike) in 9 outta the 10 frames in both the second and third games. I finished off the 244 with 7 strikes in a row. Hopefully, I can keep it up.

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Poker

I finally had a relatively successful session playing at Chumash again. It’s been a while since I’ve finished positive there. I played in their Sunday morning $60 buyin $10k Guaranteed tournament, and didn’t make the money. Afterwards, I played 3/6 for about 4 hours and made almost $250. I felt like I was playing really well, and the deck was hitting me over the head with good cards. I would have rather gotten them in the tournament, but I’ll take what I can get. I never got aces, but I got KK twice, QQ three times (it lost once), JJ twice (lost once). The times these hands lost, I didn’t get married to them and lose a lot of money. I also pulled off one pretty massive suckout, but I don’t think I played the hand terribly wrong. I had Q9 on the button, and limped in. Flop came KQx, small blind bets out, a bunch of callers, and I call as well. Turn is a 9, giving me two pair, but when the small blind checks, and someone in MP bets, I’m sure he has TJ for the straight. I call. River is a Q, for my full house. This time, the small blind bets out again, the straight raises, and I three bet it. Small blind thinks for a while, and folds (he later said he had a queen), and the guy in MP caps it. This guy did slowplay aces earlier, so it’s possible he has KK (or KQ) for a higher full house, but for one more bet, I have to call. He shows me the TJ I thought he had, and I win a huge pot. I also made one laydown I’m pretty proud of myself for. I was dealt A♣Q♣ on the button. Someone in early position raises, a caller to me, I call, as do both blinds. The flop looks good for me, a T♣Q♥4♥. The small blind bets, the big blind raises, and it’s three-bet before it gets to me. Suddenly, my top pair, top kicker isn’t looking so good. I say “time” and think about it for a while. I don’t know much about the guy who made the three-bet, but the big blind had been playing lots of crap hands preflop, and betting them hard when they hit. It’s very possible she has Q4, QT, or T4, even to the preflop raise. If she has T4, I’m not in terrible shape, but if she has two pair with the Q, I’m drawing to two aces (not the A♥). Finally, I muck, and tell the dealer to look at my cards when I do. He does, and gives me a look like I’m crazy. The turn was a third heart, and the river a blank. Someone made their flush, but I was beat when I folded, as the big blind did have T4 for two pair. After the big blind turned over her cards, the dealer asked me when I was giving lessons. My response was when I could start winning consistently. Overall, I was very happy with my cards, and how I played.

Congratulations to Ben Affleck for winning the California State Poker Championship. I bet the World Poker Tour is kicking themselves for not making this one of their events. A celebrity at the final table would probably make for good TV. Even if it didn’t, it certainly would have brought in viewers.

Pepsi Edge

Pepsi recently came out with a new mid-calorie soda called Pepsi Edge, to compete with Coke’s new C2. It has 70 calories per can, instead of the 150 in a can of regular Pepsi. I stopped at Ralph’s yesterday morning to pick up a new pair of sunglasses for the poker tournament (yes, I’m serious), and to get some caffeine. The bottles of Pepsi has just been put in the fridge, and were still warm, but the Pepsi Edge was cold, so I bought a bottle. I’m sure if I had them back to back, I could tell the difference, but having just the Edge, it tasted like it was supposed to. It didn’t taste bad, anyway, and there was no aftertaste that I could find. I definitely recommend it if you’re looking to cut calories but can’t stand the taste of diet soda.

Idiots

Airliner lands at wrong airport. Enough said.

Baseball

The Mets have won four games in a row, and have pulled back up to .500. They’re only 2.5 games out of first, and picked up a bat (although not a great one) in Richard Hidalgo. Hopefully, he can somehow return to anywhere close to his 2000 season, when he hit 44 homers and batted .314 for the Astros. He did pretty well last year, too, with 28 homers and a .309 average. This year isn’t looking so good, though.

Congrats to Ken Griffey, Jr. for finally reaching the 500 homer mark. He picked a good day to do it, too, on father’s day with his dad in the ballpark.

My fantasy team is doing far far better than last year, currently in third place. Last week, I went up against the first place team, and won 7.5-4.5. That was nice, but I was this close to winning 9-3, which would have been much nicer. Anyway, my offense still sucks, but my pitching is incredible (Mulder, Glavine, Zambrano, Gagne, Smoltz, Izzy). I’ve been rotating catchers and shortstops in and out, and my first baseman and outfield aren’t producing like they should. Hopefully, they’ll pick it up.

Gmail

I’ve been using Gmail for a few days now, and it seems pretty cool. I still get all my mail sent to an account at my own domain, and can check it (and get it forwarded to my Treo) with POP3, but I also have it forwarding to my Gmail account now. I’ve found I like their webmail interface better than I like Evolution, which is what I had been using. I’ve basically been reading all my mail at Google now.

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Lots to talk about now, and virtually none of it poker related.

Wedding

My Brother‘s wedding went well. It’s hard to believe they’re finally married after being together for 6 years. The ceremony was very nice, and the party afterwards was fun. Brad and Staci are now in Hawaii, hopefully enjoying their honeymoon. I’m back at work in California.

I don’t know what else to say about this, except congratulations to both of you!

Flight Home

Years ago, I took a trip with my family from New York to Tucson. We flew America West from NY to Dallas/Ft. Worth to Phoenix to Tuscon. Our flight out of Dallas was delayed, and we missed the last flight out of Phoenix to Tucson. The airline put us on a van, and drove us there. They dropped us off at the airport at around 4am, and left us there. No one else was there, and we were left stranded at the airport. We decided not to fly America West again.

This was a long time ago, so I decided to finally give them another try. I flew to Tucson, again through Phoenix, from Santa Barbara for Passover last month, and my flight to New York for the wedding was also America West through Phoenix. Last month’s wasn’t that bad. My flight from Phoenix to Tucson was only delayed for four hours (in which time my father, who was already in Tucson, could have driven to the airport to pick me up, and driven back). Unfortunately, that terminal of Sky Harbor doesn’t have wireless internet access. I ended up reading some of Sklansky’s Hold ’em Poker for Advanced Players while waiting. The flight from Tucson back to Santa Barbara was relatively smooth.

Getting to New York was easy. No delays, no problems. I read Bringing Down the House on the way there. Very good book.

The flight back, however, was a mess. We took off a little late from JFK, but still managed to make it to Phoenix on time. I slept for a few hours on the flight, and then started reading The Biggest Game in Town. I finished it about halfway through what was supposed to be a four hour layover in Phoenix, and I highly recommend it. I finally started Positively Fifth Street, when they announced that the plane to Santa Barbara would be delayed an hour and a half coming in.

While I was waiting for the flight, several others were delayed at the same gate and the next one over. A flight to Austin needed a new tire, which was supposed to take a half hour, and took two and a half. They were lucky, they eventually ended up getting where they were going. A flight to Palm Springs needed twenty volunteers to get on a flight the next day because of a weight limit on the plane. A flight to Durango was delayed, for some reason I didn’t hear. The Palm Springs flight gets the volunteers, and then gets delayed more anyway, because of problem with the plane. They finally get a new plane (and didn’t need the volunteers after all), and take off.

My plane takes off shortly afterwards. A minute or two into the flight, I can tell something is wrong. We don’t seem to be getting any higher, it seems like we start circling, and there’s some strange noise. After another few minutes, the captain says the front landing gear won’t retract, we have to circle to dump some fuel, and will be landing in Phoenix again. I’m not at all surprised. We circle for twenty minutes, a third of the flight time to Santa Barbara, and land again. On the ground, I find out that the Palm Springs flight also had a problem, and landed back in Phoenix.

After another hour and a half in the airport, waiting for the plane to possibly be fixed, they tell us the flight is cancelled. The later flight to Santa Barbara is also delayed over an hour, and will likely be cancelled. I get booked on the 7:28 am flight the next morning, and they put me up in a hotel, and give me a $10 meal voucher good at the airport or the IHOP in the hotel. As I’m leaving the terminal for the baggage claim, they announce that some other flight is delayed because the dashboard lights on the plane don’t work.

I pick up my bags, get the van to the hotel, and check in. I’m told the IHOP is closed for the first time in six years, until Wendesday. The remote control for the TV in my room doesn’t work. I watch Monk, the only episode of the show I’ve ever seen before, and then go to sleep. I get up at 4:15 to shower and get the 5am van to the airport. I check in, check my bags again, and get told to go to gate B18 (the same gate as the previous night). After about an hour, I use my $10 food voucher on overpriced Cinnabon and bottles of water. I happen to check the monitor while I was doing this, and notice my flight has moved to gate B1.

At gate B1, the Palm Springs flight is supposed to take off at 7:24. My flight is 7:28 at the same gate. We board late, after the other flight, but somehow manage to take off and make it to Santa Barbara on time. Only 15 hours after I was originally supposed to be there. I get a cab home, and then go right to work.

I don’t think I’m ever going to fly America West again. They didn’t offer any voucher for future travel or refund. I don’t think I’d feel safe flying with them when their planes have so many maintenance problems anyway. It really wasn’t worth the $200 or so I saved by choosing them over any other airline.

Baseball

Randy Johnson became the oldest player to throw a perfect game last night, throwing the 17th in major league history. He struck out 13 batters and threw 117 pitches, 87 for strikes. The best part of the whole thing, for me, is that it was against the Braves, who aren’t in first place in the NL East for a change. The Mets aren’t either, of course, but I’ll take what I can get.

The Mets did give me a nice blown save in my fantasy league, though, to get a win against Isringhausen and the Cardinals. They’re only one game under .500, and only 2.5 games out of first. There’s still hope.

Softball

I missed last week’s softball game because I was in New Jersey. Apparently, we were winning going into the last inning, when the other team scored 14 runs. Last night, we were losing 5-1 after the first, and 13-9 after 5. I walked in my first plate appearance, and was left stranded, lined a single to left in my second, and was forced out at second base. In the top of the 6th, I came up with the bases loaded, down by four, and lined another single to left. Only one run came in, and the bases were still loaded. The next batter also singled, driving in one more. After a run scoring flyball, and a popout to the infield, I was the tying run at second base with two outs. A groundball up the middle drove me in, and we scored two more in that inning to take our first lead of the game since we went up 1-0 in the first inning. In the bottom of the 6th, the other team loaded the bases with nobody out. They had the tying run on second, and needed just a single to bring him in. They hit two flyballs to center (driving in the runner on third), and then the last batter lined out to left, giving us only our second win of the season. I think we’re now 2-5. But it was fun, and we won.

I’m sure I had more I wanted to talk about, but I can’t think of it now. Maybe some other time.

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I’ve been meaning to start doing some reading again lately… well, for the past two years or so, I guess. I just never really find the time or have the motivation to do it, or something. I did read two books (Winning Low Limit Hold ‘Em, Hold ‘Em Poker) on my flights to and from New York in December and January, and that was good. My results in the casino don’t seem to have improved, though.

Today I started Moneyball, about how the A’s win so many games when their payroll is one of the lowest in the league. I’m about a third of the way through, and am enjoying it so far. I definitely need to make more time in my schedule for reading.

I suppose I could not watch repeats of the World Poker Tour and Showdown at the Sands that I’ve already seen. I almost wish the TiVo listings actually had correct information about which episode it was, so it wouldn’t keep recording it, but I don’t really mind watching them again. I also just got Positively Fifth Street, and will hopefully be reading that next. I also have a bunch of other books on the way. Anyone see a pattern here?

I ordered a deck of cards from Amazon (essentially free because it put me over the top for their supersaver shipping), and they accidently sent me a case (12 decks) instead of 1. I contacted them using their customer service form online, and the response makes me think they never even read what I wrote:

Thanks for writing to us at Amazon.com.

I am sorry for the inconvenience with the set of cards.You may return most items sold by Amazon.com within 30 days of delivery for a full refund.

However, we have extended our returns period for the holidays. Items shipped between November 1, 2003 and December 31, 2003 may bereturned until January 31, 2004 for a full refund, subject to theother returns restrictions outlined on our web site.

We’ll pay the return shipping cost if the return is a result ofour error.

I think at this point I have no further obligation to return them. Looks like I’m going to be giving them away, as they get virtually nothing on eBay.

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6.5 about 150 miles north of me. First time I’ve felt an earthquake.

I’m fine.

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Maybe I don’t really need a new bowling ball. Last night, after dropping my first two shots in practice and cutting my thumb, I threw a 189-199-203-217 for an 808 series. All while my thumb was still bleeding (covered with skin protector, but coming through so I had to re-apply it every so often). I’m sure you wanted to know that. I’m going to get the new ball anyway, but I definitely felt more like I knew what I was doing, and the shots I missed were my fault, not because the ball didn’t do what I was expecting it to.

Also… it appears the inverter wasn’t the problem with my laptop screen. I got a new inverter, and it still doesn’t work. It’s out of warranty now, so I’m probably going to get a new laptop. In fact, I’ve already ordered one, but I’m reconsidering, so I may cancel that. I don’t know what I want to do anymore, but I know I want to bring a computer home with me when I go back to New York at the end of the month. Hopefully, the one I ordered from Dell will get to me in time, and I won’t have (too many) problems getting Linux going on it.

Stupid computers.

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I went to the bowling alley today (to bowl, but mainly because they have a change machine so I could get quarters to do my laundry). Turns out they had an Ebonite Demo Days thing going on there, and they had space in the last squad to go, so I decided to do that.

I got to try five or six different bowling balls, to see what worked well for me. After going through four that I didn’t really like, I picked up the V2 Strong. After an open in the first frame, I proceeded to throw nine strikes in a row, and the next shot was just a hair high and left the 4 pin, which I picked up. Finished the game with a 268, which I didn’t realize until after I got home is actually my high game (previously 264). I threw that with a ball I just picked up for the first time. My next two games with it were 210 and 198, and I wasn’t really trying to make spares when I left them. I had no choice but to order one of those bowling balls, since I’ve been thinking about getting a new one anyway. I even ended up ordering the 15lb version (instead of the normal 16lb that I use) because that’s what I used today.

Hopefully, it wasn’t just a one time thing. I don’t think it was, since I was doing really badly with the other balls I tried. I also threw my regular one so I could compare the lane conditions to a ball I was familiar with. I think I’m gonna like it.

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The Offspring’s new album is available now… in Japan and Europe. Not in the United States.
From Amazon.co.uk:

and from Amazon.com:

And they wonder why people download music with P2P.

Results from softball Tuesday: We won the first game! Unfortunately, it was because the other team didn’t show up. I think we woulda beaten them anyway. Then we got killed by the first place team, who really shouldn’t have been in that league. We finished 5-5, and in second place, for the first time. All in all, it was a good season.

I got the greatest comment posted last night: A Nigerian 419 scam. In my blog comments. It’s crazy. See it here.

Alrighty, that’s all for now.

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A lot has happened since the last time I’ve written anything here. I watched about half of 24 season 2. I went to Kentucky for Thanksgiving. I watched the World Series of Poker marathon on ESPN Thanksgiving day. The day after, I did no shopping, and instead went to Caesars Indiana and lost a bunch of money playing Hold ‘Em in a casino for the first time. I got stuck at the casino because of snow, so I ended up getting a room there, and for the most part not using it, because I played poker all night. When I got back to Santa Barbara, my laptop’s screen died. It’s now hooked up to my crappy extra 15″ monitor, and is no longer portable, for the time being. I just have no luck with electronics. Last night, I bowled like crap, and my team only took 3 outta 28 points. We only took 5 last week. Not a good way to start the second round.

I guess that’s it for now. Tonight at 6:15, my softball team goes to the playoffs. I’ll let you know how that goes.

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