Morning Music 3/11/09

Another random playlist today.

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1. Time is Running Out- Muse. The last song I listened to last night before I went to sleep. Must have stuck with me because I wanted to hear it again this morning.

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2. Silvergun Superman- STP. I'm no Superman, but I play one at work. ;-)

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3. Scene from an Italian Restaurant- Billy Joel. I seriously laughed out loud when I heard this....all I could see was Horatio Sanz playing Billy Joel on SNL. I don't think I ever listened to this song all the way through before today, and I can see why.

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4. If You Were There, Beware- Arctic Monkeys. Love this band.

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5. When it's Over- Sugar Ray. At one point, I did have this CD. Now I only have a couple songs from it. I am not disappointed in losing most of it.

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6. Marching Bands of Manhattan- Death Cab for Cutie. A welcome change from the Sugar Ray appearance.

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7. Blue and Yellow- The Used. It's been a while since I've listened to this. I forgot how much I really liked it.

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8. Intermission- Panic! At the Disco.

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9. Brownsville Girl- Bob Dylan. Mr. Dylan is always a welcome addition to any playlist. The man can do no wrong in my eyes.

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10. The Light of a Fading Star- Floggin Molly. I can never have too much of this band in the morning. Something about them just gets me going.

My iPod Has a First Name....

Another random day, another random playlist. First ten:

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1. Vasoline- Stone Temple Pilots. As usual, the first song isn't random. I needed something to help get me going this morning, and this song sounded like a good idea at the time. I am honestly not sure how many times I have seen STP in concert, but this song plays prominently in my favorite memory from their concerts. We went to see them at Cobo when they were touring in support of Purple and they opened with this song, which was their most popular song at the time. I thought that was kinda strange, since I figured it would be in the encore, but the way they came out to the song set the tone for the rest of the concert. I couldn't imagine it going as well had they NOT opened with Vasoline.

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2. Moment of Weakness- Bif Naked. Another blast from the 90s. This was probably my favorite song on I, Bificus, which I listened to all the time when it first came out. I still like most of what is on the CD. Some albums are timeless. You can go back and listen to them and they will still sound as good to you as they did at the peak of your enjoyment with that album. This is not one of those albums. It sounds very dated to me now. The background music sounds almost canned really. The best way I could describe this song is to say it sounded like Renee Zellweger trying her best to sound like a professional singer while using a bad copy of an old No Doubt demo song as the background. That being said, the beat is nice and uptempo....which was perfect for me this morning.

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3. Wide Awake- Audioslave. Not a great song, but not terrible either. Musically I really enjoy it, but the lyrics have never done anything for me. Three solid songs to start off the playlist though. Me: Good job iPod. iPod: Thank you Michael. Me: My name isn't Michael. iPod: I know Michael, and I have repeatedly asked you to call me K.I.T.T. Me: You are an iPod, not the car from Knight Rider.... iPod: Fine. Enjoy the rest of your playlist, jerk.

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4. Song Sung Blue- Neil Diamond. Seriously? Not exactly what I was hoping for, but it's Neil Diamond, so I can't skip it.

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5. Sweet Caroline- Neil Diamond. OH COME ON! I have two Neil Diamond songs and they get played back to back in the first 4 random songs of this shuffle? Can we get a little more shuffle in this 'shuffle' here?

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6. She's My Pusher- The Crystal Method. This is more like it.

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7. Love Association- I Hate Kate. My first time really listening to this song. It's kinda weird. I'll have to give it another go later.

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8. The Judas Kiss- Metallica. After they sold out, got commercialized, and got caught up in the whole Napster ordeal a few years back I kinda was done with them. Then I heard some of the new CD, Death Magnetic. I would hesitate to say that the old Metallica is back, which can't be expected to ever happen anyway, but they definitely went back to their roots. I happily bought this CD the day it came out, and haven't been disappointed. None of the songs really stick out as great, but most of them are very good. This song here is a full 8 minutes of rocky goodness.
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9. My Only One- Plain White T's. Eh....

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10. Can't Say No- The Helio Sequence. I like this song, and this band for that matter, but not what I was looking for today.

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All in all, not bad....except for the Neil Diamond set there in the middle. I really need to make a couple playlists for days like today when I really need a jolt to get going. The first few songs were great, but Neil Diamond can kill just about anyone's mood. Believe me, I found that out in high school.

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Now onto some Flogging Molly before a podcast or two.

Spring Break 09

No classes this week.

You've Been....Thunderstruck

It seems that spring is actually on it's way. I got to take advantage of the warm weather yesterday and ride to school. The X still has a nail in the tire, so I had to coax Black Betty back to life if I wanted to ride.

Waking her up from her long winter's nap is never easy. It takes a little work, and a lot of patience. I actually began the process on Thursday because I knew I wanted to ride yesterday. Normally I wouldn't have done that, but this year someone turned off the power to my battery tender....back in early November. I knew the weak battery would not be able to hold up if I tried to get her started right away.

I'm not gonna lie, I was a little shaky when I first got her on the road yesterday. It didn't last very long though. Just outside my neighborhood there is a private drive that is somewhat twisty. Most of the buildings there are associated with the auto industry, so you really don't have to worry about traffic right now. I always warm up for a ride by taking that "shortcut" to the main road. She handled the twists better than I did, but then again she is a crazy bitch. I swear she can only say one thing, and that's "I wanna go fast".

On one of the turns I dove in pretty deep, since I was doing twice the posted speed limit of 35 mph, and felt my laptop shift in my backpack. After the turn I immediately backed off the throttle, then started laughing at myself. I am fine risking the damage to my bike if I lay down in a turn at that speed. I have no qualms putting my flesh and bone on the line in a turn like that. But heaven forbid I do anything that might hurt my precious laptop, the cheapest and easiest of the things mentioned to fix and/or replace.

It was good that I went through the twists to warm up a bit on the way to school, because less than 1/2 a mile later....emergency stop. An oncoming vehicle turned left in front of me, not seeing me until I was almost touching her fender. Thankfully I take it a little slower than normal around traffic on an early season riding day like yesterday. I know that no one expects to see bikes this early cause they are still kind of in winter riding mode. Even though I was pretty much ready for anything, she turned so late and my stop had to be so quick, that I locked up my rear which then fishtailed a bit on me. Thankfully that area of the road was dry.

Once stopped I yelled and made some gestures with my throttle hand as I downshifted back to first, and she just shrugged her shoulders at me. I guess getting to the Olive Garden was just that important to her. I wonder what her waitress was wearing. Probably basic white and cotton, but maybe it was silk, maybe something really cool that I don't even know about....

The rest of the night was really uneventful. At school we had an in-class essay, which I believe I rocked, and spent way too much time going over what will be on our quiz when we come back from spring break. I made sure to take the long way home and took Black Betty up through the twists twice more, at a slower speed this time because it was dark, because I know it'll be at least another week or two before I have her back on the road again.

Today, a thunderstorm as the cold weather moves back in. But the early taste of spring has me giddy anticipating the coming change of seasons. Tonight we lose an hour for daylight saving time, so there's no turning back now. Right?

Midnight Madness

I hear my voice of reason begging me to go to bed. Just like I'm walking on the street, I ignore and keep on going. Another few steps and I won't even remember the begger.

I'm exhausted. Physically. Mentally. Totally spent, yet I forge ahead for just a bit longer.

I'm in one of those "whoa is me" moods tonight. I should amend that and say I have been in one of those moods lately. I've had a few balancing forces to keep me on an even keel, but I know it's only a temporary fix. A band-aid. Sweeping it under the rug. The problem remains, but if it's out of sight then it's just as good as out of mind.

I'm not worried. I know that in about a week's time I will just be shutting down all emotion anyway. I have to if I hope to do well out there. I'll be fine then, but right now I want to be human. I want to feel the ebb and flow of emotions. I want to be happy, sad, excited, overwhelmed, and the rest of this emotional cocktail I've been dealing with for a while now. I want to feel this all while I have a chance.

No matter what, I will come back from my trip a different person....but I get to be me just a bit longer. I like the 'me' I've seen around here lately, it's definitely been a good run, so I'm going to take advantage of it while I still can.

Random Songs 03-06-09

Threw the iPod on shuffle this morning and picked Doesn't Remind Me by Audioslave as the first song. Listening to it usually brings a smile to my face at one point or another because there are times I'd rather think of nothing than of all the thoughts swirling in my head. This song can kinda get me to that point if I let it.

1. Doesn't Remind Me- Audioslave.

2. The Thrill is Gone- B.B. King.

3. All the Love in the World- Nine Inch Nails.

4. You're the First, the Last, My Everything- Barry White. Yes, I have the best of Barry White on my iPod. And yes, you should be jealous.

5. Thinking About You- Norah Jones. I'll never tire of her soothing, sultry voice.

6. Jumping Rooftops- Angels and Airwaves.

7. Love and Memories- O.A.R. Another "feel good" song for me. Good job iPod.

8. The Last Fight- Velvet Revolver. One of my favorite tunes from the "super group".

"Breaking the chains of featherweights and giants

With the stain forever lasting liars

There afraid when we spit out the fire

And start living

living

living my friend"

Gotta love it.

9. Hound Dog- Elvis Presley. Not a favorite, but still not bad.

10. Call Me When You're Sober- Evanescence. I used to have a crush on Amy Lee (I surely wasn't alone there) and I still enjoy listening to her sing, no matter the subject. Here, the strength of character in her words makes it even better.

Image Selection: Kind of ironic really. I decided that I would use a random pic as the lead today, so I decided to do a google image search for "random" and I would use the picture located in the 5th spot of the 3rd row on the 9th page of the search results since today is the 5th day of the 3rd month of 09. At least that's what my post title said until just now. I thought it was the 5th until I looked at my watch just a minute ago. I've changed the post title, but I think the image needs to stay since I've decided that I need to just go with the coincidences in my life lately, and not question them too much.

St Jimmy

When my hair gets a little long, I start to look like Jimmy Neutron. It's something I've used in the past to gauge when I need to get my next haircut. The last few days I've been sporting the Neutron look for a different reason, lack of hair product. More precisely, the hair product I normally use. The gel I have as a backup just in case I run out of the normal stuff isn't so great i guess....but I keep forgetting to stop at the store on my way home from work or school. Hopefully this will serve as a reminder for me when I leave today.

Something caught my attention at school on Tuesday and even though it was applicable, it was not the onion booty. I saw a flyer posted for a school sponsored creative writing contest. The last couple months that is the only kind of writing I can do. My English professor is having fits about that actually. She really likes the way I write, but cannot stand the fact that I tend to stray off the path of the assignment. Actually straying is the wrong word. Sometimes I jump right off the path immediately and blaze my own.

So even though I am running late for class the other day, I stopped to check out this flyer. I was very interested as I read over it, until I saw the due date. March 3rd. Yep, submissions needed to be in by that afternoon. I was like 30 minutes past the deadline already. Oh well, guess I will just have to keep an eye out at school for the winning submission and see how it stacks up to my writing. I kinda hope it's a lot better than something I would write for a contest, that way it wouldn't matter that I didn't get one in. If it's not, I will be unreasonably harsh on myself for walking past that cork board all semester and not noticing the flyer sooner.

Dark Side of the Morning

Although I still get to work more than an hour before the sun rises here, I have noticed that it is beginning to get light out earlier than a few weeks ago. We may be finally coming out of this winter, which has seemed to drag on forever.

While I begin the day on the dark side at least 5 days out of the week, I am definitely a child of the sun. The pigment in my skin illustrates this in the warmer months, easily bronzing if I spend any time at all outside. This is a nod to my father's Native American heritage, which I appreciate much more than the easily burned skin associated with my mother's Irish background.

Being a creature of the sun I like to shine as brightly as I can, as often as I can. Not in an overpowering, attention seeking way...but in a way that can be appreciated by many, even if it goes unnoticed. Whether it's smiling at a stranger who briefly looks up from their feet as they walk toward me or cracking a silly joke to a coworker who is having a bad day, I like to spread the shine I hold within me. But like anything other than the sun, including the moon which looks so beautiful at times because it reflects the shine of the sun, I also have a dark side.

I am a very balanced person in almost every regard, and my dark side is no exception. As brightly as I can shine at any given moment, I also have a drastic dark side to maintain the balance. I have this dark side completely under control nowadays, and never let anyone see much of it at all. Yet it remains.

Sometimes I am thankful for my dark side. I can tap into it for creative purposes, or it can give me great perspective by showing me how bad things could really be in a given situation. I'd have to guess that anyone who is as much of an optimist as I am must have a very controlled, yet very dark side. No good without evil, no right without wrong, and no light without dark.

While this album, which I regard as one of the top three most important albums in history, is not really dark, the title kind of stuck out to me this morning. It's been a while since I gave it a good listen, so here it is helping me get through the morning. Helping me transition from the darkest part of my day to the brightest.

The One With the Letter

A few months back I came to somewhat of a personal crossroad in my life. Everything has been so much better for me since then, but I wrote myself a letter that night and don't remember ANYTHING that I wrote in it. It has been sealed ever since. I think it's time to see what I had to say back then.

Spoiler: I hate to be a tease (well, not really), but I probably won't say anything about it again after this.

I'm (not so) Wide Awake It's Morning

I may have gotten more hours of sleep, and better sleep at that, last night than I did on Sunday, but I feel a lot more tired tonight. After such a busy Monday with work and school, I still felt strangely unfulfilled. Thinking too much about how the work/school/work/school pattern was going to be my life for the next few years kinda got to me. I've got so far to go, and have only just begun.

Connor Oberst always has some words of wisdom for me, even though he's a little more than 3 years younger than me, so I turned to I'm Wide Awake It's Morning by Bright Eyes today to get going. I'd say this is my second favorite of his works, with Cassadaga being my favorite, but it has a few songs that I really want to listen to right now, with Lua being at the top of that list.

Dream Commute

I had hoped to embed a great video of what I dreamed last night, but the embedding has been disabled, AND the song Map of the Problematique by Muse (which was definitely in the dream) has also been disabled due to a copyright issue. Nevertheless, here is a link to the video I wanted to post, but with a different song.

This is how I got to work in a dream I had last night, although I definitely was not wearing a helmet, and I don't think I was wearing anything like the suit that makes this all possible.

Cause I Had a Bad Day....

Ever have one of those days where every little thing goes wrong? My afternoon was like that today. I set my alarm a little earlier than normal for a between work and school nap so I could get a few things done before going to class. The one thing I really wanted to take care of took longer than expected, so I was rushing to get out the door. Guinness threw up in the kitchen on the way to letting he and Kira out, and after I let them in I dropped all the food I wasn't putting in their bowls onto the floor. I finally get everything cleaned up and head out the door....without my winter coat, because I left that in Cleveland last weekend, and without my cash. No food or drink for me in class tonight, ugh.

After I get around the slow people as I leave my neighborhood, I take the turn onto a Ford Rd and traffic is jammed before I even get off the ramp. I know full well that the people who live around me can't drive, but it doesn't often lead to a major traffic jam because of an accident. At least I got a decent picture of the day out of it.

Somehow I got to class just before it started, picked up my quiz (the second one I did NOT get an A on in that class), and was a contributing member of the class like normal. I just had no desire to be there, or in the class afterward.

Now it's time to wrap up this, my third post of the day, and hit the hay. I never got out one of the posts I had planned for today, so tomorrow might be another multiple post day. Stay tuned.

PS: This post actually went up Tuesday morning because as I was finishing it up, my laptop refused to connect to my wireless network, even though my desktop was working on it just fine. Gotta love irony.

Scatterbrained

While my brain was bubbling over with random ideas to bring up here on my way to work, most have since subsided into the recesses of my mind. But seeing as I never shy away from talking about anything at all, I will start somewhere and probably end up somewhere entirely different.

First, an observation. The Pistons have strung together two victories for the first time in quite a while from what I can recall. Two road victories at that, Against Orlando and Boston. Even though Boston was without KG, we are still the first Eastern Conference team to beat them at home this year. Iverson has been out the last two games, and Rip is back in the starting lineup. He has scored 56 over those two games. Now I don't mind having the dilemma of three solid, near all-star caliber guards to choose from on the team, but maybe this is not just a coincidence. I respect AI's game and believe he is still a great talent, but I am not so sure he is really the linchpin this team needs. He is certainly nowhere near as good of a fit for team chemistry as Chauncey was.

Until Friday night, every game I had watched since the trade just didn't resemble Piston basketball to me. Most nights it seemed that the team hadn't even practiced for the game. It was all very sloppy, and kinda like a pick-up game. We have some great talent on this team, but as we showed the Lakers in 2004 (yes, five years ago now), having the most talent on the court is not a guarantee to win. I attributed the apparent lack of preparation to the coaching staff, but after watching the team play with Rip in the starting lineup, maybe The Answer is to have AI come off the bench. Something needs to be addressed, and quickly. The playoffs are fast approaching, and we are a .500 team. After 6 years of making it to the Eastern Conference Finals, we are on the verge of completely missing the playoffs.

So watching the basketball game at home pretty much describes my Friday night, well that and being jealous that I had some friends in Chicago for the weekend and I was stuck at home. Saturday wasn't much different than Friday, except it was watching the Wings get BLOWN OUT in Nashville (which is in Kentucky I guess when I get angry and complain about hockey) and I wasn't at home all night because Mark and I actually left the house for a few hours. We had planned to meet up with four friends at a bar that another friend works at, but no one else showed....not even our friend who was supposed to work that night. After one for me, and two or three for Mark, we headed to Xochilmilco's to get some real Mexican food. Unfortunately it wasn't as good as usual, but it still beat any other Mexican option around here that I know of.

After Xochi's, Paul came over and played a little XBox while we talked and I made sure he didn't steal my Criminal Procedure book. Got a few texts from my friends in Chicago which really made me regret not being out there, then went to bed a lot later than I should have.

Yesterday I did something I never would have done before the economy hit the fan....I turned down going to dinner at Melting Pot. It was hard to say no when Denise called and asked if I wanted to go, but staying in with pizza to watch Old School and Talladega Nights seemed the smarter option for me.

I retired early last because I had a couple people to catch up with, and were better to do that than in the friendly confines of my always comfy bed? One person never answered the phone, and the other kept me up past my bedtime again over IM. After a couple hours of restless sleep in which I was constantly talking aloud to my dogs for some reason, I rolled into work a little tired. Hopefully when I get out of here I will have enough juice to make it to the gym, instead of crashing for a nap before class tonight.

Definitely Maybe

Here is the first of what I fully to expect to be three posts today. Little time to sleep leaves more time for the mind to wander, and my mind has been bending in all sorts of directions lately.

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Over the weekend, I uploaded a few of Mark's CDs to my iTunes account and this was one of them. It's been years since I have listened to this album, and I'm glad I am finally doing it again. I liked Oasis from the first time I heard them, and I still do. I have been to two concerts this winter, and other than my usual Flogging Molly pilgrimage (which is yet another post I need to get up, so maybe 4 today?) was the Oasis concert. Ironically, I had to drive through a pretty bad snowstorm for each concert. In the end, both were worth it. Definitely, not Maybe.

Floating Through the Morning

Even before we went to Cleveland to see them last week, which I still need to post about, I had a hard time getting the song Float out of my head. Today that led to me listening to the whole album as I got everything ready today. There isn't a song on this album that I dislike, so the morning has gone by pretty quick so far.

Morning Music, 2-25-09

While driving home from a later night out than I had expected with my friend Kelley, I had my iPod on shuffle as usual. The last song to start playing as I was pulling up to my house was Fidelity. I didn't finish listening to it, and I guess that stuck with me through the night because I really wanted to hear it when I got to work. Considering I like the whole CD, it's currently playing in my ear as I get everything started for the day.

Studiousness

I've learned the hard way that my brain is no longer the information sponge that it used to be. While my memorization skills seem to be about the same as they always have been, my stamina for studying has been severely limited. I used to be able to study for hours on end without breaks and exhibit an extremely high level of retention. Today, I was completely burned out after about 90 minutes. I am very confident that I got enough out of my studying to have gotten an A on the test I took today, but the immediate recall I am used to just wasn't there.

Now, instead of studying for my second test tonight I am here lamenting the fact that I can't study like I used to. Strange, but not completely counterproductive. Getting things out of my head and onto this blog seems to help me relax. As an outlet, this little free blog has been invaluable to me. I constantly edit and critique pretty much anything I write. Essays, short stories, e-mails....everything. Here, I put it out there and let it go. No stressing about grammar, spell checking, or editing. While what I put here cannot rival the quality of my better work, in some ways this blog is even better. With certain restrictions on my personal and work information, I will put pretty much anything here. This is truly a window into my mind. I'm not afraid to be self critical (see Evil), or discuss my crazy dreams or the effect my fears have had on me as I have in the last few posts.

For someone without much of a filter to begin with, these posts can let me unleash the few things I do filter.

10 Random Songs

I didn't have a certain CD or playlist in mind today, so I selected the first song and let Mr iPod choose the rest. Here's what my little buddy chose for me today:

1. The Good Left Undone- Rise Against. Like I said, I chose the first song. I can't stop listening to this song lately, so it seemed a good place to start.
2. Tell Me Baby- Red Hot Chili Peppers.
3. Houses of the Holy- Led Zeppelin.
4. Pimp Juice- Nelly. It's a good thing no one was around when this came on....I'm sure I looked like a fool dancing down the hallways.
5. 5 Ghosts I- Nine Inch Nails.
6. Smalltown Boy- Bronski Beat.
7. Dangerous- Ying Yang Twins w/Wyclef. Helping further my man crush on Wyclef
8. Like a Rolling Stone- Bob Dylan.
9. Secret Spell- Tori Amos
10. Let This Go- Paramore

And I have to note that the 11th song was In a Big Country, which has got to be one of my favorite songs (if not my absolute favorite) from the 80s.

Overall a decent mix. Good enough to get me through my boring setup work and now give me a chance to listen to a podcast or two.

Morning Music, Interrupted

Today's CD selection is Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace by the Foo Fighters.

While I normally fly through my setup work in the morning while listening to an album, sometimes I get derailed....and so does the music. I haven't had a chance to complete today's yet, which is too bad. It's been a while since I listened to all of Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace and I definitely need a fresh perspective on it.

As with all Foo Fighter albums, I like this one....but am not blown away by it. Maybe I listen to too many concept albums, maybe I am just not 'getting' all the material on here. There is no arguing that this is quality work, but I think I just expect too much from them and that usually ends in disappointment for me.

One of the things I have noticed about my impression of each Foo Fighters album is that, to me, there is always one song that stands way above the rest when compared to the other tracks. In this case, the album starts off with that song (The Pretender) and, to me, just cannot keep up that pace, even though there are a couple of great songs bridging that first track and the rest of the album.

I was hoping that taking it in as a whole today would help me listen to it better, but will now have to make plans to do it some other time.

Monday Morning Music Selection

How about a little Vampire Weekend to kick off my very human work week?

Confession: I listened to the last track (The Kids Don't Stand a Chance) before playing the album from the beginning. Couldn't help it. I'm too into that song right now.

Fears

I've never been affected much by irrational fears. As far back as I can remember, there has always been a few people in my life that are. My mother has a sometimes crippling fear of heights....anything higher than the second story gets her into a panic mode. When staying in a hotel, she has to request a floor no higher than the 3rd if she plans on getting any sleep at all. When I planned my wedding in Vegas she was happy to be going out there again after so many years, but while most of us planned plane rides of about 4 hours to get there she was making reservations for an overnight train ride.

Thankfully my father doesn't have any real fears. He's not great on a plane either, but when your first plane ride was compliments of the government because you "won" the draft lottery and were being shipped to Viet Nam, I can see why it might bring back some bad memories. Regardless, my father fights sucks it up and gets on the plane no matter what. Just another reason I am happy to have him as a role model. I know that I was indeed a real winner in the parent lottery.

On the way home from dinner with my parents tonight, I listened to a song that I realized late last night had a LOT of meaning to me recently. I've been enjoying the song the last few months, but last night as I was half listening to it while doing something else, one of the lyrics caught my attention. Then I listened to the rest and had an OMG moment. Had I written a song about what has been going on in my head these last few months, it would have been just like this song.

So tonight I hear this song and another light bulb goes on. The dreams that have been the worst for me the last week or so are very much like the ones Wolverine has in X-Men, as I previously posted, but the strongest link other than the flashback type layout of the dreams is that I am under water for many of the worst parts. I do have somewhat of an irrational fear myself, and that is a fear of drowning.

It's definitely not a fear of water. When I learned to body board as a young teen I became nearly hypothermic because I was in the water long enough to effect my core temperature. And here I thought I was always warmer than the average human. So the fear is more of a suffocation fear, and not a drowning fear, but the easiest place to suffocate is in the water. I know I realized this when I was young. I always loved the water, but there was always that risk there in the back of my head....maybe that's what actually drew me to the water. I don't know.

It took me a long time to properly learn how to swim, but when I made my mind up to do it correctly, I learned to be the strongest swimmer I could possibly be, including how to counteract rip currents and undertow....which came in handy more than once in my life. While on spring break in Daytona Beach during my senior year of high school I took my bodyboard out just before a storm hit. The waves were huge for that part of the Atlantic, and the currents and undertow were pretty extreme. Long story short, I got caught in the undertow after a huge wave broke unexpectedly overtop of me and I was dragged along the sandy bottom for about a minute, after having the wind knocked out of me by the crashing wave.

At first it was sheer terror, but that was very brief. Once I realized the situation, I became very calm and remembered to swim parallel to the shore to break free of the current. My problem after that was summoning the strength to do so after having all my breath and strength sapped from my body as I was slammed from the crest of a 15 foot wave to the bottom of the ocean. I finally clawed and swam my way free of the undertow, grabbed my board, and went for a long walk along the shore. For years, I had a light scar on my shoulder from the sand scraping off my skin as I was dragged further out to sea, but looking now for the first time in a LONG time, I couldn't even tell you which shoulder it was.

Hopefully now that I realize my fear is not of the water itself, my nightmares involving water will be less intense. Hopefully, as I look forward to another night of abbreviated sleep, I will be able to handle them the same way I would handle another run-in with a strong undertow. Be calm, and work your way out of the situation.

I use that mantra in my day-to-day life, why not apply it to my dreams as well?

In Dreams, Vol VII

Post number 150. I've been doing this blog for almost 4 years now, and this is my 150th post. Not setting any land speed records here am I?

So lately I have been having some weird nightmares. I just found out the other day that there is a Wolverine movie coming out. I guess I was the only one who didn't know. I am excited to see the movie, but I think my subconscious is taking it a bit far. The dreams I have been having lately are very much like the nightmares Wolverine had in X-Men about being made into what he was. It's been very intense and pretty scary. I don't have many nightmares, and have never handled them well when they do invade my nights as it is....but these are much stronger than normal nightmares and involve all sorts of horrible things with all sorts of people I know.

I don't know much about night terrors, and if there are even dreams associated with them or not, but I can't imagine they could be much worse than the way I feel when I wake up suddenly from one of these dreams. I've come out of my slumber swinging at someone from a dream, running from someone, jumping from a rooftop, and yelling at the top of my lungs....and that may all have been in the same night.

No matter how I wake up, I always have the same physical symptoms; I am sweating and my heart is racing. Pounding so hard that it's as if I just ran a 100 yard dash. Usually I can calm myself down pretty quickly and go back to sleep, but it is a little more distressing each time it happens in a night. Some nights I've avoided going to sleep because I know it's going to happen, but it's not like I can function without sleep. I think everyone knows that I would if I could, but I guess I'll just have to deal with it until my mind settles down.

Start Me Up

This morning's soundtrack: Black Holes and Revelations by Muse.
`


Seems to be a perfect album to start off this Thursday.

Complaints

Everybody complains from time to time, I fully admit I do it myself here and there, but sometimes it's just too much. Some people complain about everything they can, going out of their way to look for every little thing they can find to point out as bad or wrong. Sometimes these people find very legitimate complaints and in telling someone about it will actually benefit others.
My question: Are these occasional instances where it is helpful enough to make up for all the other benign stuff they gripe about?

My answer: Not today.

The day started off pretty much as it usually does, with my alarm clocks going off so much earlier than I would like, but progressed pretty well from there. By the time I was shaving, I was already being goofy....and for the benefit of no one other than myself, since the house was empty other than my dogs and myself. Now, I wasn't in a "dancing in the mirror" mood....but it was still nice to be in a playful mood as I got ready for work.

It seems the dogs picked up on my attitude, as they both wrestled with a few toys, wrestled with each other, and attempted to wrestle with me. They bounced around the house for most of the time I was getting ready, and Kira wanted to play peek-a-boo with me again. That's the best way I can describe it really. She lays on her back, puts her paws behind her ears, then brings them forward so they cover her eyes, before she extends her legs all the way out toward me as if she's asking for a hug. It's pretty effing adorable. I tried to get a picture of it, but my camera was in the other room and all I had was my cell phone.
`
So even though I didn't sleep too well last night, I was still in a good mood on my way to work. When I got to work I was faced with a couple problems. These problems impact everyone briefly, but would have a bigger impact on my morning than just about anyone else. Even with that I was still in a good mood walking in. I do what I can to address the problems, and find out they should be taken care of rather quickly.
`
With that out of the way I settle in for my early morning duties, and hear nothing but complaints for the next 1/2 hour. One person was basically yelling about it as she walked in. She was the straw that broke the camel's back. My good mood was gone, my headache had begun to set in. I now have a full blown headache because I also fielded a few calls with complaints and a text message conversation about a complaint as well.
`
Lunch can't get here quick enough. I could use some food and time to relax.

Swagger

I think I've had lower levels of testosterone the last couple weeks while I was sick and/or unable to sleep. I woke up this morning a lot more refreshed than I should have been from a couple hours of restless sleep, and actually feeling more like myself. I can almost feel the testosterone coursing through my veins at this point. It feels good to be normal again.

I know I have swung the other way a few times in the last couple years, where I am a lot more aggressive than normal in many aspects, but this is the first time I can recall that I've felt this kind of drop for this long. I guess it makes sense, having the flu, which then turned into bronchitis, then not being able to stay asleep for an entire week after that will probably have an effect on your body. I also fell behind in school for a while because I didn't feel like studying, and nothing seemed to stick when I did.

I studied a lot more than I normally would have for a quiz I had last Monday. With a very precise study guide, and being told exactly what the essay questions was going to be nearly a week in advance. I knew exactly what to expect on the quiz. I got a B-. Unheard of. I could get a B- in most classes not even showing up for lectures and doing some light studying for tests. No doubt I should have gotten an A, but the material just wasn't there when I tried to recall it.

I've now caught up with all the material needed for the class, and was actually told by the professor at one point that I needed to give others in the class a chance to speak during our discussions....even though they were slowing us down. With the slow pace of class, we didn't get to finish what we had scheduled for the night, so I am actually ahead in the material again.

I'm sure as the day goes on, the lack of restful sleep will catch up to me and I'll grow tired. But to feel as good as I do right now is a nice change.

Flu

So instead of sitting in class taking notes and learning, I am sitting at home sneezing, coughing, hurting, and sweating....I've only had the flu a handful of times, but it's completely knocked me on my ass each time. If I didn't HAVE to go to work, I would have called in sick the last two days. Going to class, which is something I enjoy, has fallen by the wayside because of this sickness. Sleep has been even more elusive than usual, since all I do is shiver or sweat when under the covers.

I miss the days when I could just take some cough syrup with codeine and completely sleep through the flu.

NIN

Nine Inch Nails LiTS Victoria BC from senada bojku on Vimeo.

2009

Happy New Year. Hope everyone is enjoying national hangover day.

A new year is always cause for resolutions, and while I try not to get caught up in all that too much....it's not a bad idea. Wanting to do something more or better in your life is a wonderful thing....regardless of how it works out practically. You will never do any of these things if you don't try, so trying it even for a week or two is a lot better than nothing. Nowadays I kinda view resolutions as a freeroll, and ANYone can tell you that I love me some freerolls.

So the resolutions I have are kind of simple. Going back to last year's resolutions, here, I am continuing with my pic-a-day thing. I successfully completed my task of taking at least one picture every day of 2008, and will probably now continue that until I am unable to take pictures anymore. I'll try to post more of the pics here, and more likely on facebook, but I make no promises about posting the pics. Facebook is the better way for me to go with the pics because I'm honestly not comfortable posting pics of myself here where anybody and their mother can see them and save them.

As for the other resolution I tried last year, watching and reviewing the top 52 movies as voted by users on the IMDB top 250, I'm not going to try that exactly again....but I will be making an attempt to see as many of the top 50 that I haven't seen yet.

New to this year is a weight one. I've done the weight loss thing a few times over the years with mixed success. This time it is clear that I need to do more to keep myself in check. I'm going to start posting my weight here pretty regularly as a way to keep tabs on myself and hold myself accountable. I hit 244 a couple weeks ago. The most I have ever weighed in my life. 240 was always that magical number that I would never let myself hit....until it happened. Now I'm dropping it and will try and make each 10 lb increment my new magic number as I drop below it. I'm currently at 238 and working my way down to 230.

Now it's time to be lazy while I still allow myself to be. Going to check and see if Full Tilt is still giving away the 3x points today and watch the NHL winter classic.

Under my Skin

Why is it that some people just have this crazy ability to bother me so much more than most others? 99% of people I come in contact with any given day can say something to me in a certain way, and I can just brush it off, but there are a select few who could say the exact same thing in the exact same way and set me off in some way or another.

I understand that some people who know me well enjoy pushing my buttons....as I do the same. Normally it's something that can be easily ignored or not even noticed in some cases. But for some reason, someone I don't know as well who means no ill-will toward me can send me off into a little bit of life tilt.

Maybe I am a bit on edge lately with everything that is on my plate at the moment, I dunno. And I do realize this is mostly just babble right now, but if it can help me talk though what I am trying to figure out....then it's more than worthy of a blog post, even though it won't offer any entertainment value whatsoever to anyone who reads it.

After all this, I can honestly say I just don't know and be fine enough with that to go drink my low-sodium V8 and go through the rest of my morning as calm as a hindu cow.

Not Buying This One....

So I came to my senses after the last blog and didn't buy any of the overpriced Redskins gear I was looking at (even though that gnome is just awesome) but I have still been checking out sales on NFL merch to see if there is anything out there I would like to add to my growing little collection. There is a 20% off sale at NFLShop.com today, so I've spent some time looking at the Skins stuff there. Finally found something that I SURELY will not buy....at any price.

Although, I can't swear I won't get this from my dad for Christmas. This is one time I am happy my parents don't have a computer.

Sports Fan Reflection

I need to be stopped.

I seem to be on the verge of becoming one of "those" fans. I have always been a loyal supporter of the Washington Redskins, my favorite team in any sport since I was a kid. Buying a coat, or a hat, or some sweats with a Redskin logo on them here or there never got out of hand. I'd always had more UM or even Lions gear than Redskins gear....but that seems to be changing.

Last year, after LaRon Landry got drafted by the Skins I found a great deal on an official Landry jersey and bought my first non-Lions (I was a season ticket holder for many years) football jersey. My Redskins gear as of now consists of that jersey, a hat, and a pair of workout shorts I basically just wear around the house. Still, not that bad.

Today, while looking to see what deals I could find on Amazon I came across a Redskins garden gnome. I don't have a garden, but I am still considering it. Other deals I found and considered, or am still considering, include an ugly mousemat that just happened to have a Redskin logo (I do need a new mousemat after all), a garden flag to go along with Mr garden gnome, and a magnetic helmet decal for my car (pictured above). The browser tabs to these items are still open, even though I haven't added any of them to my cart yet....but I am still browsing.

My hope with this post is that I can use it to gain a little perspective while doing my online shopping. At a time where I am cutting my spending in as many areas of my budget as possible, I sit here and can somehow justify spending money on useless items I'd never look at if they didn't have a Redskins logo. Hopefully I can get through this with minimal checkbook damage, but we shall see.

Red Meat Reduction

It's not as if I eat red meat on a regular basis, but I probably eat a lot more than I should so this is my next food to cut from my meal rotation.

The other two foods I've cut back on have seen mixed results so far. I still haven't had even a sniff of bacon since I stopped eating it more than two weeks ago, but I did break down this week and had some chocolate chip cookies. It's been a lot harder avoiding chocolate than I really expected, with Haloween less than a week ago and my birthday being today, but after today I should be able to keep away from chocolate for the rest of the year. Although, I still reserve the right while in DC to suspend the chocolate ban if need be.

It would be irresponsible of me not to say something about the election yesterday. I am happy to see that Obama did in fact win, as I was worried that our voters would somehow botch this election too. What I am happiest to see is that Prop 2 in Michigan (expanding stem cell research) looks to have passed. I was worried the terribly misleading ads being run by the religious right leading up to election day would dissuade many voters.

There are a ton of moral issues on state ballots across the country this year that I am interested in, and will be checking throughout the day to see which ones passed and which ones failed. It's amazing how cut and dry many of these things seem to me, yet how unlikely they are to be resolved in the way I think is right. Sometimes I feel as if our country is slipping back into the dark ages, hopefully some of these states can prove that false as I read the results today.

Ciao Chocolate

As if quitting bacon alone wasn't hard enough, I have decided it's time to throw another food into the "Do Not Eat" category. With all the Halloween candy just lying about here at work, and more to come as the holidays draw closer, I thought this was a perfect time to kick the habit of grabbing one here or there as I walk by someones desk.

The best way for me to drop a little weight is to eat healthy at work. Grazing every day at the desks I pass by probably isn't considered healthy eating.

Unlike the bacon ban, this chocolate crackdown will be lifted while I am in DC. There is a Melting Pot out there that I will probably end up going to, and I do not plan on skipping one of my favorite desserts of all time. This, along with the possibility of homemade brownies or cupcakes being thrown my way by Sarah, necessitates some leniency while I am on vacation. Just another thing to look forward to in DC.

Seasonally Affected

Every year I face a period of adjustment when we move from Summer into Fall. I usually get a bad sinus infection when the weather starts to cool down, which I have thankfully avoided so far this year, and having less sunlight usually does a number on my overall mood too. As the days get shorter and the cloud cover thickens and hangs lower, the amount of natural light we get around here is quickly suffocated.

This year seems to be worse than any previous year. Maybe the lack of sleep and extra time I am required to spend inside because of class are factors. Maybe I have just become more aware of what to look for to see that I am being affected. Who knows? All I know is that I feel unmotivated and this general malaise. Right now, I am supposed to be doing research for a paper in my Human Sexuality course....instead I am blogging. Not wanting to do research about sex? Something is off there.

I know that exercise and proper dietary habits are great mood elevators for me, but I'm rarely able to do them for more than a couple months at a time anymore. Maybe if I can compare my mood now to my mood when I am eating right and working out and see a big difference, I can stay motivated this time around.

OK....enough babbling. Here's a nice little video to show kinda how I feel lately. I hadn't listened to this song in forever, and it just popped into my head this morning.

Bye Bye Bacon

Today marks day one of my bacon-free challenge.

It's no secret that I need to drop a few pounds. In the last 2-3 years, my weight has fluctuated between terrible and not completely unreasonable quite a few times. I'll do well for a while, then I hit a target weight and let certain things creep back into my diet. Soon enough, I am back where I started. I know I have the discipline to do it, I just need to stick with it a lot longer than I usually do. Instead of a few weeks or a couple months, I need to look to do this for a few months or a couple years.

Cutting bacon out of my diet seems pretty extreme to anyone that knows me well. I don't eat it very often really....but I do love it. To me it seemed like a good start. I know there aren't any health benefits associated with eating bacon, so it isn't hard to convince myself not to eat it. The next time I will allow myself to have bacon will be New Year's Day, if I stick to all my diet restrictions between now and then.

There will be more steps to come in the near future. I have decided to start by greatly reducing the amount of pork products I eat, and eliminating some (like bacon) altogether. Reducing simple carbs, red meat, and dairy are all on the horizon. These foods aren't doing anything but keeping me in the terrible shape that I am currently in, and I have only myself to blame for eating them.

Now I will have a burger or something here and there....I am not going to stop craving these foods right away, if ever. and I know this. I am going to eat heathier, just not completely healthy I am sure.

Simple Math

Wrong Place + Wrong Time = 1 Dead Cat

Biting me in front of my already pissed off
Rottweiler and Mastiff/Boxer....not a great idea.

Not So Good Morning

As if getting up at 4:30 isn't bad enough, I got woken up at 3:00am because my dog Kira needed to go out. She NEVER wakes me up to go out, so I figured she must really need to go. I groggily walk to the door and let both her and Guinness out. Didn't take me too long to figure out why she wanted to go out, as they confronted a cat just a few steps from the porch.

A fight ensues before I can get out there, and before they kill the cat I am out in the yard in my sleep attire (aka nothing) trying to call the dogs off when I am bitten by the cat. Two nice puncture wounds on my left index finger.

So off to work I go, looking forward to a nice day at animal control afterward to test the cat's body for rabies....hopefully I can avoid getting a rabies shot.

Loving this song right now....haven't we all felt this way at one time or another?

Time

Time Passes. Even when it seems impossible. Even when each tick of the second hand aches like the pulse of blood behind a bruise. It passes unevenly, in strange lurches and dragging lulls, but pass it does. Even for me.

Changes

Labor Day has passed, and Summer has changed into Fall for all intents and purposes. Schools are back in session, and the NFL is playing games that actually matter now. All within the span of a week, these changes have had an effect on me.

Gone are the days where I looked at the calendar and planned day-long rides, knowing the weather would be warm enough, if not dry enough, to take the bike as far as I wanted. Instead, I look at the calendar and see days that would be good for winterizing my bike, and getting her ready for hibernation.

Also gone, is a good chunk of my free time. After nearly a decade away from the classroom, I am again enrolled for classes. I waited til the very last minute to make my decision to go back to school, so I didn't get all the classes I had hoped for....but starting with a couple classes instead of jumping right back into a full load is probably a good idea anyway.

My remaining free time has been dedicated to football of late. Just over a week ago we drafted players for my 12-team FFL and on Monday we had our annual Labor Day draft for my 10-team FFL. I am pleased for the most part with both teams, but only time will tell of course. I don't like the fact that both teams have two starters in common, but I really like both players this year so if I am wrong....I have no one to blame but myself.

Speaking of football, the Giants beat up on my Skins last night. Going in I really thought Washington had a good chance to win the game, and it turns out they did....but they were much better at playing poorly last night. I don't remember an opening game being so disappointing since they switched the format of the first week to include a Thursday night game in 2002. Maybe my memory is failing me, but I think the quality of the play and the officiating last night was very sub-par.

And in case you haven't heard, Kwame is finally stepping down as mayor of Detroit. It was big news all day yesterday, then he had to go and give his good-bye speech at 7:00 last night....interrupting the game after the first possession. Oh well, at least this chapter is almost over for the city. Let's hope we can write a better one to follow.

The Autumn Paradox

We are on the downslope of summer. Fall will be here before we even know it. The weather will cool, the leaves will turn, the days will get noticeably shorter.

At first this will be welcome. No more dog days of summer. Aren't the leaves so pretty? Yay, we get another hour of bar time.

Then it gets cold, really cold. And dry. Even though there is a foot of snow on the ground, there's no moisture to be found.

The transition from summer to winter means a lot of things to a lot of people. Us sports fans will welcome back the NFL, then the NBA and NHL, and say good bye to MLB with yet another world series the Tigers did not win.

The skiers and snowboarders will rejoice as it will soon be cold enough to make snow. The fisherman, water-skiers, and bikers will reluctantly put away their toys for a few months. Parents will gladly send their kids back to school, unless said student is a college freshman and the parents are footing the tuition bill.

With every end, there is a new beginning. Some of us wish the end would never come, others are giddy with the anticipation of the beginning.

Personally, I will mourn the loss of summer more this year than normal. As I grow older and realize that the summers in my past which I have been able to enjoy probably now outnumber the ones yet to come. I will again lament the fact that I have yet to sack up and move my sorry ass to a climate that is drier throughout the year, and I will procrastinate on shoveling my snow if at all possible.

With the summer coming to an end faster than I would like, I'll be sure to enjoy what I can of what's left. Take the long way home from work on a nice day, ride 200 miles one way just to grab a burger, sit under a shade tree and just take everything in with all of my senses.

Hopefully what I've experienced this summer will help carry me through another winter of discontent.

My New Girl

Isn't she beautiful? After more than three years of looking for the perfect companion, I finally found her. Click on the pictures to get the full size images.

Numbers

So it's late June, nearly halfway through 2008. Hard to believe, but it's a cold hard fact. To go along with that fact, I looked at some cold hard stats about my poker game. I used to fancy myself a very good limit player who used those powers for good, aka buying myself into tourneys and donating in a donkfest here and there. It seems that something has shifted though.

At best, I am a recreational player nowadays....not that I was ever a pro, or even close to it, but I used to play at LOT more than I do now. I play enough to keep my skills pretty sharp, and I still think I have an edge over a good percentage of players. I mean, what poker player doesn't?

So I decided to take a look today at how I am doing in ring games so far this year. Fired up poker tracker, and got out the calculator....just opened the windows calculator actually. I was somewhat surprised at the stats. Before playing today, I was ahead for the year. By $2. Thankfully I posted a small win today and am now ahead $37.10 for 2008.

I've decided to hold off on going pro.

The Breakdown:
65 sessions
2890 minutes
48.17 hrs
1.28 cents per minute
77.02 cents per hour

Only 48 hours in 177 days. Considering I usually play 2-4 games at a time, I've probably only spent about 12-13 at the computer hours playing hold em ring games. I haven't looked at hand histories for SNG play or mixed game tables yet, and I probably won't, but I don't think those stats would boost my win rate by much, if at all.

I've made a concerted effort to play more live poker, play more poker variations, and I still play too many heads-up SNGs....but I think it's sad that I've only gotten about a week's worth of online cash games in this year, and we're halfway through it. I keep looking at the tiny-ass bankroll I have online and it makes me cringe. I don't mind playing the low limit games to work my way up the ladder again, but is seems like I can only get into it here and there anymore.

Cash games have gotten tougher since the UIGEA, but not so much that I am scared to play a $2-$4, $3-$6, or even up to an $8-$16 or $10-$20 game now. I am pretty sure I could still be profitable at these limits with a little game selection and some time on the virtual felt....but why is it that I don't WANT to do this anymore?

I think everyone has their poker breaking point, and playing online will accelerate that exponentially....but I don't think that's the case here. My most enjoyable times with online poker were during the blogger heyday back in 05 and early 06. Reading the blogs, playing the tournaments when my schedule would accommodate, and the peak of that period was no doubt playing in the 05 WPBT Winter Classic in Vegas and final tabling it.

Since then, poker has been more of a hobby than a passion. I just don't get into it as much. Playing, watching, reading about it....about the only increase in poker content for me is the podcasting from PokerRoad, and that's just because it's so much easier to do than actually read a blog or something.

So I still like poker, especially playing live in a casino or someone's basement....I just need to com to grips with the fact that my grinding days have passed me by. I need to want it now for me to actually play, even though it's only a few mouse clicks away.

Apologizing it Forward

I need to let everyone know in advance that I am wrapping myself in a cocoon for the foreseeable future. There are a lot of stress factors in my life right now. Anyone who knows me pretty well knows that I don't really sweat the small stuff in life, but these issues I am dealing with are definitely not small to me.

If I am noticeably absent the next couple weeks, or even months, from things I would surely otherwise attend or if I am present and seem somewhat apathetic or aloof, I apologize. I have a lot on my plate, and need to digest it all before I feel better.

Talking some things out with some of you will undoubtedly help me work through this, but I won't burden you too often, if at all, about most things. That being said, don't be offended or assume I think less of you as a friend if I don't seek out your counsel. There are certain people I find easier to talk to, and even some of them won't hear from me because I don't want to add any stress to their lives. Don't take it personal.

Last but not least, if you know Mark....please give him your utmost respect and condolences. Poor bastard has to live with me as this all goes down.

Peace, Love, and Putt Putt Golf.
~~Max

Super Turbo!

Full Tilt has unveiled a new form of SNG tournament, called a super turbo. 300 chips to start instead of the normal 1500. I'm not always keen on flipping coins, but I figured I would try a few of these to see how they worked.

I wanted to play in today's MSOP event #29, $30+$3 NLHE. I noticed a few of the satellites to this event were super turbos. Two birds, one stone. I register and a few second later get seated, noticing that I only had 100 chips. Talk about flipping coins, that was sick....but I kinda liked it.

I played three of these super duper 100 chip turbos before getting lucky enough to win one, and I am currently playing in the MSOP event....poorly I might add. Currently 1117th out of 1149 remaining. Looks like I won't be missing dinner tonight.

Update: I actually made it to the second break in the MSOP event, and will be in the small blind with an impressive M of about 3.3 when the break is over.

I also had a lot of fun watching a short stack at another table win hand after hand to go from 4 chips to about 100 before finally busting out.

It Was Only a Matter of Time....

I'm breaking down and posting some poker content. Razz is terrible. When I am on, I can play the game very very well....when I'm not, I play like a fool. And it just so happens that Razz is the one poker variation that I can go on hard-core tilt while playing. Throw in a bunch of three of a kinds and three pair hands in one tourney, and I become unhappy. Such was the case tonight. I was already slightly on life tilt when I got home, had a splitting headache, and missed registering for the MSOP Heads-Up tourney on FT that I was looking forward to playing all week. So being the smart guy that I am, I decide the MSOP Razz event was more my calling for the day and decide to satellite my way in.

I play in a single table satellite where two seats are awarded. I play pretty well, get decent cards most of the tourney and find myself in 2nd chip position with only three players left. Of course I get a ton of bricks while the short stack makes good hands, and I finish third with nothing to show for an hour of Razz madness.

So I just buy in directly, feeling pretty good about my chances in the 643 person field. My patience and attention to detail when it comes to watching my opponents betting patterns should help me go deep into this tourney. Long story short, I finish 561st out of 643. A good hour into the tournament, but probably about two hours short of the money bubble. Way to go jackass.

Here is a microcosm of my Razz night. This wasn't the only time I saw this exact hand either.

UPDATE:
The good doctor is in Vegas covering the World Series as usual, here's what he had to say about today's Razz event that the MSOP event I played in was modeled after at 1% of the buy-in.

Event #26 Razz: The 5pm event just kicked off. I think FTrain is playing. I saw Jen Creason lurking around. She went deep in the Razz event in 2005. Yeah this is one of those existentialist days when I look out onto the Amazon floor and I think... what a bunch of fuckin' sadists. Only those twisted souls who thrive on pain are into this event. How do you prep for a Razz event at the WSOP? Wear a cup and invite all the neighborhood kids to come over and take turns kicking you in the junk. If you survive, you have balls of steel and can withstand the brutal insanity of Razz tournaments.

If you haven't already read Pauly's WSOP updates, go do it now. Hands down the cream of the blogger crop this time of the year. Show him some love.

In Case of Emergency....

I used to turn my phone ringer off whenever I went to bed, but decided a few years ago to leave it on every night just in case someone really needed to get a hold of me. I've let all of my friends know that if they needed someone in the middle of the night, and weren't sure who to call because it's late, that I would be available.

Sunday night/Monday morning I awoke just after midnight to my phone ringing. Looked at the phone to see if it was a wrong number I could just ignore. Nope, it was one of my friends. I answer, and after a few seconds of coming out of my groggy sleep fog assured my friend that I was fully awake and ready to listen to what was going on....even though I may have been stretching the truth a bit.

She gets straight to the point. She is driving home, which I can clearly hear is the case, and she got really scared. Scared to the point of being freaked out and needed to call me. She's scared that she's possibly being followed, or that someone is going to jump up from her back seat and get her. On my end, silence as I try and figure out what she is telling me. Finally the reason she is so scared comes out....

She was driving home from the movie theater, where she had just seen The Strangers. For some reason this girl, who is crazy afraid of scary movies, decided to go see one of the few movies that could freak her out, and at 10pm no less. When she knew she had to drive home alone. Now when I say crazy afraid, I mean it. I've taunted her about it before, pretty recently too when she was supposed to come over for a movie night with me and Mark.

I am well aware of how scary movies make her feel because SHE is well aware of it. Maybe not the best decision to go see that movie....I'm just sayin.

Bikenstein

The weather over the weekend was good for riding. Saturday was a little windy, but still nice and yesterday was just about perfect. Unfortunately I am still waiting on my front tire for my bike to be shipped, so the Hawk was out of commission all weekend. With my favorite two-wheeled companion down to one wheel and sitting helplessly on my bike jack, I decided some more work could be done to the old girl. I've always been top notch when it comes to taking things apart....and this is where we stand right now.

Hopefully it'll look something like normal in a week or so after I get all the parts I need to get her back on the road. And even more hopefully, everything will stay on the bike after I put it back together. I always wonder why there are extra screws/nuts/bolts when I put things together.

So, Yeah.

A few people have recently commented on my lack of picture updates. Rest assured I am still taking at least one picture every day, but most of these pics are very boring and not anything I would really want to look at, much less show anyone and explain the story behind. Now that the weather is warming up, I plan to get out and take more pics around the metro Detroit area....assuming I get my motorcycle back together soon and that's it's running when I do. Speaking of, here is a pic of what I took off my bike the other day.

This is what my exhaust currently looks like, laying next to my bike instead of on it. This all started because I need to jack up my bike and change my front tire. The exhaust is aftermarket, and gets in the way of the center stand and my motorcycle jack....so it needed to come off. Now I am thinking of replacing it with a new Vance and Hines exhaust, and looking to do even more maintenance on the bike since it's already out of commission. A tune up and general preventive maintenance seems appropriate now but the more I do, the more I want to do. I am afraid I am going to go from having a bike in working order to a bunch of parts strewn about that could resemble a bike once put back together.

Thank the motorcycle gods for my Clymer manual.

No Phone, Mo Problems

I really don't like forgetting my phone at home when I leave for work. It's good to know that I can live without it for 10 hours, but it's such a pain. On slower days at work I send text messages. A LOT of text messages. No phone, no texts. I am forever using the calendar function on my phone to see what I have going on any day or weekend I a show or festival I want to check out will be in town. This is actually how I found out I wouldn't be seeing NIN this year, and I am surprised my phone survived that day.

My phone also has a calculator I use to figure out the MPG for my bike any time I fill up. It of course has a camera in case I want to capture anything I see during the day, and this camera has taken many pictures that I reference very often. This is what actually spurred my blog today. I took quite a few pictures and videos with my phone while in Vegas, and wanted to check a couple of them out....sorry.

At least I know my phone will be fully charged tonight.

Another Pic-a-Day Update

Here are the photos I had trouble uploading the other day, and a couple more to get me up to date through yesterday.

Click on the pics to see a bigger version.

Jan 14th:I nearly forgot to take a picture on the 14th, and had to do this just before midnight as I was preparing the garbage to be taken to the curb. Guinness' old food bags make very good heavy-duty garbage bags when I have something heavy or sharp to toss out.

Jan 15th:
Of course I didn't expect to see this a couple hours later when I walked out to my car. It was cold when I went to bed, but it hadn't started snowing. This pic is a little blurry as it was really dark out and I took it without flash. I had the shutter open quite a while, and was shivering as I was holding it.

Jan 16th:
VEGAS!

My reservation at MGM for April. I am soooo looking forward to this already, even though it's over 3 months away. BTW, that's not my real confirmation number in case anyone has any ideas about changing my reservation.

Jan 17th:
My cousin Denise and her devil dogs. I took Guinness with me when I went over to her house that night to eat dinner. He was shocked to see them get up on the couch and looked like he was waiting for me to yell at them the same way he'd get yelled at if he tried that at home.

Jan 18th:
With the high temp at about 20 degrees, I doubt seeing this happening at a house in my neighborhood could have been very good.

MMR #2, Alien

Movie number 51 on the IMDB top 250 when I started this project was Alien. I had seen this movie when I was younger, but didn't remember that much about it. There is a good reason for that....there wasn't too much to this movie.

The plot is very simple. 7 crew members on a cargo ship bound for Earth carrying a bunch of intergalactic ore are awaken from their "cryo-sleep" early when the ship's computer receives a transmission from another ship nearby.

They go to a planet which seems uninhabitable where 3 crew members stumble onto a
crash site and find a bunch of pods or eggs or something. One of those pops open and the entity inside affixes itself to the face of a crew member. They take him back to the ship where the ship's 3rd in command, Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) refuses to let them past the airlock without being quarantined for 24 hours, in an effort to protect the others on the ship. The science officer takes it upon himself to override the airlock door and let them in.

After a little while the alien on the face of the crew member shrivels up and dies, and the crew member wakes up. Before going back to their cryo-beds for the rest of the trip home, the crew decides to have dinner together. This is where the infamous scene of the alien busting out of the guy's stomach takes place. After that a whole lot of cat and mouse takes place trying to find and kill the alien.

When the crew has only four of the seven still alive, everyone finds out that the science officer isn't really alive after all. He's a robot that was ordered to get the alien back to Earth alive at all costs, even if it meant the entire crew had to die. The three remaining crew members "kill" the robot and decide it's time to get in the shuttle and blow up the ship with the Alien still on it.

Only Ripley makes it to the shuttle alive before the ship blows up, and after a gratuitous underwear scene she realizes she's not alone on the ship. Somehow the alien snuck onto the shuttle while her dumb ass was chasing a cat around the mothership.

Of course she outsmarts the alien and ejects him from the shuttle, sends a message out to any ship in the area that could rescue her, and gets into her cryosleep chamber.

Overall this was a pretty good movie, but seeing as it was made in 1979 the special effects are very dated. I certainly wouldn't put this movie in the top 52, but considering I am too young to remember how other movies were in 1979, maybe it's deserving. Overall I would rate Alien a 7 out of 10.

Tonight I'll be watching A Clockwork Orange, which I've never seen and am excited to check out. The review should be up in the next couple days.