I haven’t been playing much poker lately, but I did hit my first ever royal flush last night. It came in on the river, playing 2/4 NL, and I checked.

The pot was $20, and my opponent pushed for over $400! I had to double-check the board to make sure I actually had the hand I thought I did, and then called.

And we chopped.

I ended up losing more than I am used to in that game, but less than a buy-in. My bankroll can handle 2/4 NL, I think, but I’m still working on wrapping my head around it.

The Mets are still kicking ass in the NL East. After the win last night, they now have a 7.5 game lead over the second place Phillies, and an 11 game lead over Atlanta. I went to two games last week, against the Dodgers, the first and last game of a three game series. I got to see them win both, though they lost the one in the middle. I need to get to more baseball games, regardless of the teams playing. One of the few problems with Santa Barbara is the distance to the closest major league baseball team. Too damn far.

Most of my free time lately has been spent playing Guitar Hero. After the game last Monday, I played it for the first time at a friend’s place. After one song, I was hooked, and ordered it from his Amazon on his laptop. Tuesday at work, I got impatient, and ordered it from Circuit City for in-store pickup, with plans to return the one I would get from Amazon later in the week. I don’t know if I will, though, or if I’ll just keep the guitar so I have a second one.

A little bit of searching on the web found two hacks for making the guitar wireless. This one looks like a lot of work, and doesn’t mention anything about charging the batteries. I was initially planning to try that, but then found this. Definitely looks like less work, and has the added benefit of being able to charge through the PS2’s USB port. I’ve ordered all the necessary parts, and should hopefully get everything I need to do it by next week.

“I will rock your face!” —Err

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I don’t know how you people do it. Many of the blogs I read have deeply personal stuff that I couldn’t imagine publishing. Mine is pretty much limited to poker, bowling, baseball, and a few other random things – though I’ve been lightly researching on how to publish a children’s book, potentially. Honestly, I very rarely feel the need to write something personal, but the few times I do, I don’t do it anyway. I have a post that I’ve written in my head now at least a dozen times, but every time I try to actually get it down on virtual paper, it just doesn’t happen. I sit there for a few minutes, and then give up and go do something else. Even if I could write it, I doubt I’d get myself to publish it. That I’m even writing about the fact that I can’t write the posts I want surprises me.

Instead of writing it the most recent time, I went and changed the sidebars on my blog to WordPress Widgets. It’s a pretty cool plugin, and makes changing the contents of the sidebars pretty simple. Unfortunately, my layout is different enough from standard ones that I still can’t just drop in new widgets and use them without a little hacking, but it’s pretty much the same changes I need to make to each one, and they’re pretty easy. While I was at it, I added the cool little +/- buttons on each widget so you can collapse and expand each one. The main reason for that was so I can default the poker blogs section to be minimized and actually use that sidebar for other useful things. The last thing I need to do before I’ll consider it done is make it use cookies to remember which boxes are expanded and collapsed on a computer so it’ll always look the same when you come back.

Wasn’t that last paragraph about cool new features on my blog more interesting than my personal issues that no one really cares about? I thought so.

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First things first: Joaquin posted about this in my comments, and I realized I haven’t mentioned it yet. Iggy has set up another WPBT WSOP satellite, this time at PokerStars. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it, as I’ll be at the bowling alley. Monday night? WTF. Thanks, anyway. 🙂

What: Blogger WSOP Satellite Tourney
Where: PokerStars – Private Tab
When: April 3rd – MONDAY
Time: 9PM EST
Buyin: $30 +3
Password: socoshot

Second, Easycure is raising money for the American Cancer Society. You can just give cash here, or play in a charity poker tournament he’s set up on April 16th. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to the tournament, but I’ll be donating at least the $15 if I can’t.

What: Hammer Out Cancer – WPBT-POY Circuit Event (Tournament ID 3381723 under the Private section.)
When: April 16th – Sunday
Time: 9pm EST
Where: Full Tilt Poker
How Much: $10 + $16 ($15 goes to American Cancer Society so buy-in is 25+1)
Password: dahammer

I haven’t been playing much poker lately, and haven’t won when I have played, so nothing really to report on that.

Last weekend, I went back to the east coast for Evan‘s bris. The ceremony was nice, and it was good to get back home for a couple of days. I have a picture of him in my photoblog, and there’s one in the gallery. While I was there, I also got to see Brad and Staci’s new house, and it is beautiful.

Yesterday, I finally got a replacement receiver back from Denon after they finally decided waiting three months for a part was absurd and sent me a whole new box. While I’m not at all happy with their service, I do love the receiver. I set it up again last night, and got my Harmony 880 remote working with it. That was a bit of a pain, actually, but once it was programmed everything is working perfectly. It’s so nice to be able to switch from my Xbox to my Cox DVR without having to go behind them and move wires around. I also got the Xbox DVD kit yesterday, so I can use my Harmony remote to control XBMC now. I’m very happy with the whole setup now.

One last thing: Opening day, this Sunday.

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I’m so behind in posting, and have so much to say. Where to begin?

Last Friday, I became an uncle! My brother‘s wife gave birth to a healthy 8lbs, 10oz baby boy. Say hello to Evan Scott Penner. I’m heading to the east coast this weekend to meet my new nephew. I’m now officially “crazy uncle Alan from California.”

Saturday, I went down to LA with some friends to see V for Vendetta. I enjoyed the movie a lot. I liked the political message, and while it really seems like an obvious attack on the Bush administration, it’s worth remembering that the original comic was written between 1982-1985. From what I understand, the movie is pretty faithful to the comic. The explosions (though few) were good, too. The 1812 Overture is great music to blow shit up by (as opposed to Music to Look at Boxes By). I bought the graphic novel as reading material for the plane ride this weekend.

Sunday, I played some board games. First, Paranoia Manadatory Card Game, which was a lot of fun. Also, I won. I don’t think it played out quite like the game normally would, as people didn’t seem to draw the right cards for some of the missions, but it’s a good game. After that, I played a few games of Lost Cities before heading home.

I went home to play in the WPBT WSOP Satellite. Many thanks for Iggy for setting it up. I didn’t play particularly well, and eventually busted when I pushed (with an m of 2) from the cutoff with K5 and ran into Gnome‘s AK. He would go on to take second. Congratulations to Gracie for winning!

Last night, I played in the $17k guarantee at FTP. I was doing just fine until my KK in the small blind ran into AA in the big blind. It actually folded to me, and I just completed. The big blind raised, and I pushed. He said “you better not suck out,” and then called. He flopped quads. I rivered a king. I had him slightly covered, and so I still had some chips. Built them up a little bit, and then my 55 lost to A4s who made runner runner flush. And then the next hand my JJ lost to 33 (all in preflop) and I was out. Damn poker. I guess I was due for a bad run of cards at some point.

Update: I almost forgot… okay, I did forget, and I’m fixing that now: April has posted information on getting room reseverations for the WPBT™ Summer Classic. Go check out the news here.

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There was a shooting at a post office less than two miles from me. http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/31/postal.shooting.ap/

GOLETA, California (AP) — A former postal worker shot five people to death at a huge mail-processing center and then killed herself in what was believed to be the nation’s deadliest workplace shooting ever carried out by a woman.

The attack Monday night was also the biggest bloodbath at a U.S. postal installation since a massacre 20 years ago helped give rise to the term “going postal.”

I finally got my ring for my 299 game. Here’s a picture, which will probably get changed once I manage to actually take a good picture of it.

Tonight is the WWdN: penner42 Invitational. I busted Wil last week when my AK beat his TT, becoming the first former champion to get this tournament named after him. I’ll do my best to win my own tournament.

Everyone go wish Ryan good luck tonight in LAPC event #12. Play resumes tonight at 7PM, with 29 remaining and 27 getting paid.

I haven’t been playing much poker, online or live, lately. Too busy playing with my new toys. Last week, I got a Cox HD DVR (Scientific Atlanta 8300), and it’s a piece of crap. It has so many stupid issues that could be solved easily by any decent programmer who cared about it at all. It’s such a shame to switch from Tivo to this thing, except that it displays and records high definition shows. It’s worth all the hassles just for the HD recording. 24 in high definition last night was amazing. I just can’t wait until Tivo releases their cablecard/HD box later this year.

I also got a Logitech Harmony 880 remote. This thing is amazing. 5 minute setup on the computer, and it controls all my devices (DVR, receiver, projector) perfectly. It also has a battery charging base, and a screen better than most phones. Very happy with it.

I probably have more I could talk about, but I can’t think of anything right now. I really need to start blogging more often, just because I think of things I want to write about and then later forget them.

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So, my flight last night was cancelled. It happens. They put me on a flight to LAX and then to LAS. Except they booked me on a full flight from LAX->LAS and didn’t tell me. I was supposed to get in at 10:20pm. Then I was supposed to get in at 9am. Now, it’s looking like 4:30pm.

Damn America West for putting me on a full flight and not telling me.

Damn American for letting the flight go with five names on the standby list and two open first class seats.

Fuck the airlines.

Any LA area bloggers driving, not left yet, and willing to pick me up at LAX? My number’s on the list. 🙂

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Thanks to FatWallet, I picked up a nice new Darth Tater at Kmart today. $3.99 + tax. Sweet. No clue what I’m going to do with it, but I couldn’t pass it up for $4 (of course, regular price is only like $9).

My file cabinets were delivered today! So, combined with the kitchen countertop I got at Home Depot, I now finally have a desk. It’s not exactly how I expected, but I think it’s going to work out very nicely. The sticker on the countertop said 30 x 96, so I stupidly assumed it would be 30″ deep. I ordered 28 1/2″ deep file cabinets. As it turns out, the countertop is only 24 1/2″ or so deep, so with the top sitting flush against the front of the cabinets, it’s between 4 and 5 inches away from the wall. It’s actually quite handy, as I have all my cabling running across there now. I set up my Windows box on it and can finally play poker without killing myself sideways on my couch. Now I just need a new chair.

With my poker machine set up on my new desk, I actually got around to playing a little bit tonight. I discovered Stars’ new 20 table (180 player) SNGs. Awesome idea. I love being able to get into a smallish MTT any time I want. It’s part of the reason I liked UB back when I started playing. They had those $5 tourneys like every half hour. I played in one $20+2 20-table SNG, was absolutely card dead for the whole thing, and finally busted in 92nd when the first real hand I saw was dominated (KK vs AA). I think I’m really going to like these things, though. I made around $60 (including losing $40 with AA vs 99 all-in preflop) playing two $100NL 6max games at Stars while playing in the SNG. I used to not play there because the competition was so tough… well, it seems to have changed. I saw some of the most horrible plays there that I’ve ever seen. I think I’m going to have to go back. Maybe just the limit game at Stars is tough. Or I suck at limit. Either way.

Hopefully, I’ll really get back into the online poker thing shortly.

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Because everyone else is doing it:

My blog really isn’t worth nearly that, even by whatever method was used to come up with the value. Sadly, as far as links back to the actual blog, it’d be worth far less than that. Tehcnorati counts every link to my terror alert page as a link to my blog, though, which pumps up my value nicely.

Here’s a little reminder that the third weekly WWDN Tourney, this one called the Up4Poker Invitational, is tomorrow at 9 PM EST (6 PM in California! I can play from home!). It’s a $10+1 at PokerStars. Don’t forget to sign up and play! These tournaments, and the Blogger Championship on Sunday have pretty much been the only poker I’ve been able to play lately. I still need to get a new desk and set up my computers again so I can get back into it.

Last week, I cracked and bought a $700 item from Woot. It’s something I’d been planning to get eventually, just not quite so soon. Well, my InFocus ScreenPlay 4805 showed up yesterday, with Fedex nicely redelivering a second time when I called them after they tried to deliver while I was at work the first time. It came a 76″ 16:9 screen, and the 10 disc Matrix DVD collector’s set (eBay, here I come!) Sadly, it also came with a wimpy 6 foot s-video cable. I was able to connect two composite video cables I had together and get the thing working (it’s awesome!), but composite doesn’t compare to s-video or component. I spent a little more than I had to on some longer cables, because I think these look pretty cool, and I do want to run both s-video and component to the projector. I’m not one of those people who thinks Monster cables are better because they’re more expensive, though. I also got myself a ceiling mount for it. I can’t wait until it’s all set up. I don’t know if I’m going to mount the screen; it looks pretty damn good on my wall. Very pleased with my purchase.

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Saturday, I did some board gaming with some friends. Played a couple of games I had never played before, and a game of Power Grid. The first was a game with cooperative gameplay. We were all (except one, the traitor, whose identity was unknown and might not have even existed) trying to win together. It’s called Shadows over Camelot, and was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the traitor ended up winning, but it’s definitely a game I want to play again sometime. The other new game I played was Through the Desert, which is a very quick, fun game. I lost everything I played, but had a good time anyway.

Sunday was the Pokerstars Blogger Championship. I had already won my sweatshirt and hat from being chosen as one of the daily winners, and as expected, that was all I ended up with from the tournament. I feel like I played well, and was pretty happy with every single decision I made. Early on, I had a stack about 2500, and got crippled when actyper rivered a 5-outer on me. Instead of having 4500, and being able to play aggressively and push people around, I had 600, and had to pick my spots carefully. I managed to steal blinds from people sitting out for a while, and then double up with AQ vs Q9, and then double up again through Ugarte with TT vs AQ. I pulled a stop-and-go on the low flop from the big blind, and got called anyway. The blinds were big at this point, though, and I just never got anything from then on. On actyper’s final hand, I had AKs, but had to get away from it, as you can see from that hand history. I was card dead to basically blind and ante me off. My final hand I had A3s in the small blind, and just called all-in, as I had less than one blind. The big blind raised to protect my his hand, and I never improved against his KK. I went out in 354th. Pauly has a nice list of where all the poker bloggers finished. Congrats to everyone who made the money!

This weekend, I also got to set up my Polk XM Receiver. It’s pretty cool. Strangely, the best place for the antenna seems to be in my bedroom closet facing the wall. I also got my replacement Treo 650 from Amazon today, and everything seems to have restored off the SD card nicely. I think once the old one dries out, it’ll actually work again, too, but I needed a replacement before that happened. My new printer/copier/scanner/fax is awesome. I plugged it into my network, and am printing to it from both Linux and Windows as if it’s JetDirect device. I also installed my new 100gb hard drive in my laptop, and managed to get everything moved over to it without having to reinstall Ubuntu. As an added bonus, I discovered my laptop has USB 2.0 (not just 1.1 as I thought), and I have a nice portable 30gb drive now, thanks to this.

Overall, not a bad weekend considering how the end of last week went. (Oh yeah, the drawers I special ordered from Home Depot for my kitchen came in Friday – except they were the wrong size.)

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I’ve been too swamped with things to write anything here, and it’s a shame because I have a lot to say. No poker content, though, because I haven’t had any time to play (or even get my Windows machine out of my garage so I could play).

Baseball

I guess I’ll start with October baseball. I have (almost) no doubt that St. Louis is going to win it all. They are certainly the best team left in the playoffs (and the best team in the majors this season, anyway). I’m a bit disappointed the ALCS isn’t Sox vs. Yanks again, but I’m always glad to see the Yankees eliminated. I’m pulling for the Angels vs the White Sox, because if they win, I might get to go to a World Series game.

The end of last night’s game was ridiculous. Two outs, bottom of the ninth, tie game. A.J. Pierzynski swings through strike three, and Josh Paul catches it near the dirt. Home plate umpire Doug Eddings rings him up, and Paul rolls the ball back to the mound. Pierzynski then decides to run to first, as if the ball got away from the catcher. After much arguing, the umpires rule the ball hit the dirt, and he’s safe at first. After pinch runner Pablo Ozuna steals second, Joe Crede lines an 0-2 hanging breaking ball to the left field wall for a game winning double.

Now, there’s no guarantee the Sox wouldn’t have won anyway had the game gone to extra innings, but that call, in that spot, was just awful. I know, umpires make mistakes (but not as many as we think, and I agree with the article that we don’t need an instant replay in baseball), but this one was just unacceptable. He made the right call, and then got faked out by the batter, essentially. I think all the credit for the White Sox win belongs to Pierzynski. This map is hilarious. The whole country (hell, the whole world) except for Illinois think the blame for the Angels loss lies with the umpire. Illinois thinks it lies with the catcher for not tagging the batter out. After the home plate umpire called him out.

Whatever. Just crazy.

House

Alrighty, on to my house. It’s finally coming together, with just a little work left to do. The painters did a good job, once they finally did it right. The wiring is good, and the lighting is awesome. The wired in-wall speaker setup is very cool. The carpets were steam cleaned, and now I have to vacuum every day for a week or two and get the newly hatched fleas before they lay more eggs. Without a pet, I should be able to take care of this and not have them come back.

While the electricians were working, some of the ductwork in the attic got detached, so I had someone come in to fix it. He said he wouldn’t, because all the ducts had asbestos in them. Not good. According to this, an asbestos inspection isn’t required in California for a home purchase. I called the inspector, and he said as long as it’s non-friable, he doesn’t see any need to mention it. This needs to be changed. It’s definitely the kind of thing I would have wanted to know before buying. It wouldn’t have stopped me, but I could have at least factored in the cost of getting them removed, tested, and replaced. Or even had the sellers pay for that, possibly. I don’t think I’m in any danger, because the guy who did the removal said it was all self contained and not airborne. I still wanted it out of my house. I wonder how I go about getting the law changed so there needs to be an asbestos inspection before purchase.

There are a few other little things to do, like put exhaust vents in the attic and vent the fans from the bathrooms through the roof instead of just into the attic. I haven’t done anything with landscaping the backyard, or getting a sprinkler system put in yet, but I’m not really in a hurry for those things. I want to really start unpacking and getting more furniture now.

Fuck AIM

Not only is my AIM account still suspended, but I can’t even get them to respond to me. I’ve filled out the form at http://www.aim.com/suspended_account/report.adp a million times, and they won’t even e-mail me back telling me why my account is blocked. No response at all. Anyone who’s using AIM Mail should take this as a warning: Your account can get suspended and you’ll have absolutely no recourse. You’ll probably lose all your mail. I did manage to get an email reply from webmaster@aol.com, but AIM and AOL are different services, so they couldn’t help me. webmaster@aim.com got no response. If I didn’t know so many people on AIM, I’d probably drop it altogether and switch to something like Google Talk. I have created a new AIM account. If I was on your list, I haven’t contacted you, and you want to know my new screen name, send me an email. I’m still trying to get my old account back, but I have no hope that I’ll actually succeed. If anyone has any recommendations on what to try or who to contact, let me know.

Other Stuff

I went to a Green Day concert in LA Saturday. It was very good. I took a picture. That’s it, can’t think of anything else.

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