If you’re reading this post, you’ve either found my temporary setup for my switch, or the DNS change has gone through and my website is now running WordPress instead of MovableType, and has been moved to the 1and1 server.

I think the switch to WordPress was fairly smooth, and I love that I don’t have to rebuild anything anymore.

The only thing that seems to have not worked quite right is importing Trackbacks (they got imported as comments.) Seeing as I have a whopping total of five of those to deal with, I will do those by hand at some point.

Once this change goes through, I’ll hopefully post a nice long update about what I’ve been up to. Don’t count on it, though.

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Well, I guess since everyone else is doing it, I figured I might as well, too…

Supposedly, if you go sign up for this thing and sign up for one of their offers (which can cost you nothing), and get five friends to do the same, you get a free iPod. It’s worth a shot, I suppose.

Now I just need five people to use this link: [removed] and sign up for an offer.

I signed up for AOL for Broadband, and will cancel before the 45 days are up.

Anyone done this and got the iPod?

(Recommendation: Use an e-mail address that you only use for spam-related stuff.)

Update: From reading around online, it seems that it will only take a few days for it to show up that I completed the AOL offer. I’ll post another update when that happens.

Update 2: It’s now shown up that I’ve signed up for my offer, and just need five pther people to do it. Two random people I don’t know clicked through the link here, but I have no idea if they actually plan on signing up.

Update 3: I don’t need any more signups. Please use one of the following links.

• Gene: http://www.freeiPods.com/default.aspx?referer=9783111
• Jon: [removed!]

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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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Where else could I find things like these to compare?

Today’s current electoral vote prediction: http://www.electoral-vote.com/jul/jul28.html (That’s a link to July 28th’s. Here’s the current updated one.)

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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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Eric Gagne’s streak of saves ended at 84. He blew a save tonight. I was there.

Here’s my ticket (click for bigger image):

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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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I’m not sure where the sidebar on the right went. It’s on every page except the main page now, and it looks like it should be there, it’s just… not.

Weird.

Update: It had something to do with the previous entry. When I added this one, it came back.

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I should really stop going to Chumash to play poker, and just stick to playing online. The past few times I’ve gone, I’ve lost a bunch of money at the casino, and then immediately won it back online when I got home.

The first place win in the tournament in my last entry (plus my ring game winnings while I was playing the tourney) made up for what I lost that night. I went Friday night, lost a bunch of money, then made it all back playing 2/4 at Stars. I played in a $60 NLHE tournament Sunday, where the top 50 of 140 paid, and failed to make the money. I went home and came in 6th of 230 at a $10+1 at Pacific poker, and made $130 (and got knocked out when my AK ran into AQ, all in preflop, Q on the river). Maybe it’s just a bad luck streak in person, or maybe I don’t play well when others can see me. I know when I bluff online I’m screaming at my computer screen for someone not to call. I don’t think I’m quite that obvious in person.

Last night I placed 4th in a PLHE $10+1 at UB, with 150 players. I hadn’t really played PL before, but the strategy isn’t too different. I put all my UB payout images here now. I also played in a $15+$1.50 at Pacific, but could only see one of my cards. It was the weirdest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Click on the image for a bigger version.

I had more to say, but I can’t remember any of it now.

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I just made the final table of a $5+.50 $500 added multi at UB. 549 people entered, and I was down to the last 9. (Normally, the final table is 10 players, but two went out the same hand just before it.)

Nine left. One guy, with barely anything left, goes all in, and gets beat. I’m the second stack at the table. All I have to do is not play with the chip leader. I IM’d my brother when it started and said… “no playing with the chip leader.”

Of course, just a few hands in, I forgot about that, and went out 8th. First place was $973.50. 8th place was just $48.67.

I was dealt KQ, and raised. He called. Flop QJ9. I bet, he raises. I think for a while, realize I should fold, and then push all in. He calls and turns over AQ, of course. It should have been an easy fold. I knew I was beat. AA, KK, AQ, KT, JJ, 99 beat me. He’d have called with all those hands except probably the KT. Also, QJ, Q9, J9 but those weren’t likely either. Anyway, a lot of hands beat me. If I folded, I’d still have had $70k in chips, with the blinds only $2000/$4000. I would have been just fine. Oh well, I guess that’s why I’m currently playing the cheap tournaments, to keep learning. Next time, I’ll be able to lay that down.

It just sucks to play for so long, do so well, and then fall so short. I guess 8th out of 549 ain’t bad.

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